


A Quiet Normal Life

by MagicalStardust



Series: Monsters and Prophecies [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bucky is brainwashed, Frigga and Darcy are bamfs and are trying to calm the political chaos on Asgard, Multi, Steve is Confused, Summary of all important aspects of the previous fic in the notes, The Avengers assemble, Tony Loki Jane Erik and Bruce are the ultimate science bros, Tony and Loki are good parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2019-07-24 20:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16182308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalStardust/pseuds/MagicalStardust
Summary: Odin is dead and Loki and his four children are trying to settle down and live a quiet life on Midgard in Malibu with Tony and the rest of their honorary family.Upon the discovery of Captain America, Tony tries to get over his loathing for his father's greatest creation (whatever Howard had said in that video, Tony knows it's not true) and introduce him to 21st Century life.Things would probably be going a lot smoother if Hydra didn’t think that the new treaty between Asgard, Midgard and Jotunheim would ruin their plans for world domination.(There will be a brief summary of the last story for those of you who don't want to read it, and if anything important is referenced in chapters, I’ll give a short explanation in the chapter notes)





	1. The Gossip Magazine

**Author's Note:**

> So, what happened in the Monster Under the Bed?
> 
> \- Odin had a prophecy predicting the fall of his reign/Asgard. He decides to kill his new-born daughter, Hela (born after Thor in this AU)  
> \- To avoid suspicion Odin steals Loki from Jotunheim and uses him to replace Hela  
> \- Loki finds out he is a frost giant and Odin decides to use this knowledge to control him. The power goes to his head and his behaviour worsens.  
> \- Through very angsty circumstances Loki has 4 children: Sleipnir, Hel, Jormungandr and Fenrir. Odin takes them from him.  
> \- Loki, Odin's ever-convenient scapegoat, is banished to earth instead of Thor, where he meets Jane, Darcy, Erik and eventually Tony.  
> \- They all work on building an Einstein-Rosen bridge together and during this time Loki begins to see that perhaps what Odin did to him was wrong and to heal slightly. He also gets together with Tony.  
> \- Odin awakens from the Odinsleep (over a month later than in canon), arrests Frigga (who has discovered Odin's abusive behaviour, attempted to make peace with Jotunheim and given them the Casket of Ancient Winters, and started looking for Loki's children with Thor) and comes to earth to threaten the lives of Loki and his new friends.  
> \- Meanwhile, Thor rescues Hel, Fenrir and Jormungand from a version of the Odinsleep (like a forced coma in which they don't age) and Sleipnir from the stables where he's been trapped in the form of a horse.  
> \- Loki and Tony travel to Asgard to rescue Frigga from prison, and flee to Jotunheim with Frigga, Thor and the kids, where they discover that Laufey didn't abandon Loki.  
> \- Odin arrives on Jotunheim to wage war and retrieve the Casket that Frigga returned. With the help of Hela (Odin's child that has grown up on Helheim and now rules there), Hel (Loki's child) summons an army of the dead. Hel, Hela and Laufey eventually manage to kill Odin.  
> \- Loki feels guilt for the loss of his adoptive father (despite his abuse) and they eventually all return to Midgard, where a prototype Einstein-Rosen bridge has almost been completed. Darcy expects to become an ambassador in Asgard and help Frigga (acting as regent as Thor wants to live with Jane and tend to goats) make Asgard a more democratic society. Everyone starts thinking about transportation to other realms through a bridge and political ties with Asgard and Jotunheim.
> 
>  
> 
> What's happened since the Monster Under the Bed?  
> \- Not much that shouldn't become quickly evident over the next few chapters, mostly they picked Bruce up, got SHIELD off his back and now he's helping them with the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. They've also had Laufey and his family over for dinner a few times. Darcy's gone to Asgard to be awesome and political.
> 
>  
> 
> Wooo, I'm back!!! I'm hoping to get back to my updating weekly schedule now that I'm back at uni and away from France and the oh so lovely people I stayed with. But anyway... moving on...
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy my opening magazine article, I've never written anything like that before, so please let me know if it/the formatting sucks (or, equally, if it is good)
> 
> 13/10/2018

 

 

_** Does Tony Stark Have a Heart? ** _

 

 

> _Do we finally have the answer to the question that’s haunted his fans and victims alike since his teenage years? Photos taken by a fan may finally uncover the truth of the playboy’s hidden feelings…_
> 
> _Mr Stark, 40, was spotted yesterday evening at Stonehenge, England, uncharacteristically trying to keep a low profile and holding hands with who we can only assume to be his lover._
> 
> _As we’re sure most of our readers are aware, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death’ has hit headline news in recent months, this time accused of using his blood-money to run experiments resulting in the illegal growth of an eight-legged horse. Ms Virginia “Pepper” Potts, the recently crowned CEO of Stark Industries, has assured us these images were doctored, but some doubt still remains._
> 
> _Our readers may be shocked to learn that Mr Stark was not spotted with Ms Potts in our source’s photos, but with someone very different._
> 
> _That someone was… (wait for it!)… a man!_
> 
> _Yes, you read that right. Take a look at our exclusive snaps below and see for yourselves!_
> 
> [x] - [Stone cold heart?: Mr Stark, sporting a neat and stylish pea coat, can be seen holding hands and laughing with a young, dark-haired man]
> 
> _But that’s not even the best part! His new lover seems to have children, one of whom spent most of the visit on Mr Stark’s shoulders._
> 
> [x] - [Enjoying the view: The child, who shares the same long, dark hair as his father, points to the ancient stones while his siblings play-fight around him]
> 
> _So, what do you, our readers, think? Has the world’s most famous billionaire finally softened his iron heart, and accepted his identity as a gay man? - Here at CelebNews we’re wondering if all of his flings with girls were really covering up for something - Or is this just the latest of his publicity stunts? Will he leave these children abandoned and his lover broken-hearted after a brief fling?_
> 
> _His investors might have been able to overlook his clearly overcompensating playboy nature and his ‘superhero’ alter-ego that only leads to death and destruction,_ _but the idea that ‘Iron Man’ might be having a little too much fun with another man certainly isn’t going to go down well._
> 
> _One thing’s for certain, whether due to Stark’s self-absorbed nature or the stress on Stark Industries, this mysterious stranger certainly better be prepared to have his heart broken!_

“J, delete this from their servers and give my lawyers a pay-rise, I don’t want this article to see the light of day tomorrow and I _especially_ don’t want those pictures released,” Tony ordered, sighing and rubbing a hand over his face. This was the last thing they needed, especially with the children due to start school tomorrow. Loki, who was currently standing beside Tony, gazing at the hologram of the article and looking pale, wanted the children to stay out of the limelight, and having grown up in the public eye himself, Tony couldn’t agree more.

“This is… fairly brutal,” Loki said, grimacing.

“Honestly, a biphobic article accusing me of murder and speculating about my love-life is hardly the worst thing that’s been written about me,” Tony said flippantly, trying to lighten the situation. “At least it was meant to be published tomorrow, we have time.”

Loki nodded. “That’s true. Thank you, Jarvis, for finding it.”

“I'm sorry I convinced you not to put a glamour on me,” Tony sighed, placing a comforting hand on Loki’s shoulder.

“It’s fine,” Loki said. “I was using my magic the whole time we were there and I had been sure that no one had taken too much notice of us. We were both at fault, and there is no harm done, not yet.”

 _But is it fine?_ Tony asked himself. Loki was looking rather grim, and how did he know that Loki was telling the truth? He didn’t seem too bothered, and he had seemed to mean what he had said, but he knew for a fact that due to Odin’s abuse Loki was excellent at hiding his true feelings, at least, when he wasn’t feeling panicked. What if the article was right, what if he wasn’t good enough for Loki? What if Loki thought the same?

No, he hadn’t cared what the paparazzi thought about him since he was a teenager and he wasn’t going to start now. He wouldn’t break Loki’s heart, things _would_ be fine.

They had definitely taken a risk on their trip to England, Tony had been tired of wearing a glamour, wanting Loki and the children to be able to see him for himself for once. Loki had agreed, only slightly reluctantly (admitting that he did prefer to see his boyfriend’s face when they went out together) and they had spent the afternoon walking around one of the most magical sites in Britain.

Tony hadn’t been able to feel anything himself, but he had delighted in seeing the reactions of Loki and the children at being in such a magical environment. Loki, who always appeared to be at least slightly stressed (PTSD and an anxiety disorder would do that to you), had seemed to relax as he walked around the ancient stones, and the children had been even more excitable than usual, which was saying something.

After they’d walked around the stones multiple times they had gone to see the archaeological exhibits. Everyone had been very proud of Sleipnir, who had asked the staff multiple questions about the site in his strangely-accented English (spending 500 years as a horse had made speaking difficult for Sleipnir, but he had come along at an incredible speed) and had commented that the bodies buried there were older than most Asgardians. Hel had added darkly that they’d certainly lasted longer than Odin had. Tony hadn’t bothered to stifle his laughter.

They had had a wonderful day together, celebrating the last day before the children began school, and Tony (and Loki, apparently) had been so sure that they’d been safe, and that no one had recognised him (or had at least those that had had been awkwardly British about it, and pretended not to, or convinced themselves that he was just someone with an uncanny likeness).

He looked back at the article that Jarvis was currently scrubbing from the gossip magazine’s servers. “Jarvis, after you’re done with the servers, hack into this woman’s electronic devices, see what she’s done with any copies of the pictures, delete them and do the same for whoever she’s sent them to. Oh, and the person who took the pictures and sent them to the journalist, give them a mild virus.”

“My pleasure, Sir,” Jarvis said, and Tony was pleased to see that when he looked over at Loki again his boyfriend was smiling slightly in amusement.

“Before you delete all of them,” Loki added, sounding much less grim than before – huh, perhaps Tony should send mild viruses to more people (he had worried that Loki, who got anxious about even slightly inconveniencing people, would object to this, but he supposed that when something happened to his children, it was different. Tony could relate to that, he was honestly surprised he wasn’t feeling more vengeful right now). “Do you think you could enhance the copies of the pictures and save them, we didn’t take nearly enough photos today.”

“Of course, Loki,” Jarvis replied and Loki lit up.

“That’s a brilliant idea,” Tony said, and he meant it, at least now they would get something slightly positive out of this mess.

Loki grinned at him, then kissed him, just because he could.

“Do you think you will be sleeping tonight?” he asked. “Only it’s 1am and we need to be up early tomorrow.”

Tony grimaced. His insomnia said no, he wouldn’t be sleeping, but all the same he knew he should probably rest before their meeting at SHIELD tomorrow, and Loki’s presence was calming. “I could try.” He shrugged.

“Thank you,” Loki said, and Tony supposed that would make staring at the ceiling for five hours worth it.

 

Loki was eating breakfast with Erik, Jormungandr and Bruce when Tony stumbled into the kitchen, wishing everyone a slightly incoherent ‘good morning’. Loki winced in sympathy at his lover’s half-dead expression and passed him a cup of coffee. Tony downed it in several gulps and at this point Loki was very glad he’d decided to cool the coffee down with a spell.

“Thanks Lokes,” Tony said, slumping into the free chair beside him and resting his head on Loki’s shoulder. Loki smiled absentmindedly and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I take it you didn’t manage to sleep for more than an hour,” Bruce said in sympathy, sipping a herbal tea across the table from him.

“I’m assuming that applies to you to?” Tony said, presumably noting Bruce’s dishevelled air. “I didn’t see you come home yesterday evening.”

“I’m worried about the levels of radiation the Einstein-Rosen Bridge will produce,” Bruce said, running his fingers through his hair.

“Don’t be, it’ll be fine,” Tony said flippantly.

Loki and Erik exchanged slightly alarmed looks.

“The last time someone told me not to worry about radiation, I turned into… this.” Bruce shot back amiably, gesturing at himself.

“I still think you should let the big green rage machine out to play.”

“I have to disagree, Tony already blows up the lab enough and just once I’d like my work to remain intact,” Erik drily, and however much Loki loved Tony, he had to admit that Erik was right.

It was at that moment that Thor and Jane came in with the other children, having spent time in the garden feeding the goats and the horses, and the entire house descended into chaos.

Loki watched Sleipnir in concern, noting how the child seemed to be wanting to make himself disappear while the other kids jumped raucously around him as they all assembled on the couch, ready for Loki to teleport them to school. Sleipnir was undoubtedly the most apprehensive about starting school, having not really ever been around children his own age before, or really that many people (except for battle – and Loki still cursed Odin for making his son live through that). Still, having friends at their own developmental stage was important, and so Loki was determined that the children should at least try. He was sure that Sleipnir would find his footing eventually.

He squeezed his son’s shoulder gently. “You’ll be okay,” he said.

Sleipnir didn’t look as if he believed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope you all enjoyed that!
> 
> Rather slow beginning, I know, but it will pick up quickly.
> 
> Next up: Sleipnir's first day of school doesn't go very well.  
> The team work on the bifrost. Tony starts thinking about Captain America.
> 
> Any thoughts on the first chapter would be gratefully received.
> 
> Also, if you guys are interested, I'm three chapters into an infinity war fix-it, I took a hiatus over my summer but I should be back to continuing it asap now that I'm settled back at uni! So, check out my profile, I guess?


	2. Donuts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleipnir starts school. It could be going a lot better.  
> Fury asks Tony for the arc reactor plans again. It does not go well.  
> Tony and Loki get donuts and make a plan to find Captain America.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what can I say except life has so not been going to plan and I’m sorry for the delay. I’m hoping I’ll be able to stick to a better schedule from now on.
> 
> Thank you all so much for all the comments, kudos and subscriptions, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
> 
> 03/12/18

Sleipnir slowly copied down what was on the board, his hand shaking from the fine muscle control needed to hold a pen, his writing messy and difficult to read. He was sitting at a desk in the back corner of the classroom, having decided that he liked being able to see as many people as possible as helped make up for his loss of peripheral vision as a human. Next to him someone that might have been called Ben who was loudly discussing a Christmas present called ‘Call of Duty’ with the boys sharing the desk in front of them.

“Have you ever played it?” one of them asked.

Sleipnir startled, not expecting to be addressed, and shook his head. If he remembered rightly Jarvis said it was a videogame about war that kids his age liked playing (even if, technically, they weren’t supposed to). If there was one thing that Sleipnir knew for certain it was that he had had enough of wars, being Odin’s warhorse had perhaps been the worst part of his life, and he didn’t even want to even think about them let alone pretend to be in one.

“Do you want to come over and play it with us tomorrow afternoon?” Ben asked.

Sleipnir bit his lip. The whole point of school was to make friends, he had years to learn the academic stuff the others had to understand almost immediately. And, before she’d left for Asgard, Darcy had said that one of the things Midgardian teenage boys liked doing was going to each other’s houses and gaming, often consuming a lot of junk food and energy drinks (whatever they were). But he couldn’t, he couldn’t play a game about war, but what if they hated him when he refused and-

Thankfully, his thoughts were cut off when the teacher, Mr. Allan, came back into the room. Sleipnir tensed immediately and followed him with his eyes. Everyone at home had said that teachers were nothing to worry about, but they were authority figures, and that meant they were automatically dangerous.

“I had thought I’d asked you all to work quietly while I spoke to Miss Moreno,” Mr Allan said icily. “I’m sure that you’ve all finished doing the questions on the board and I won’t need to keep you in over recess… Aaron and Jamie, what’s so interesting about your conversation that you don’t feel the need to listen to me?”

Sleipnir’s gaze flicked over to where two boys sat slouched in their chairs a few rows in front.

“Basically everything, Sir,” the one with short, light brown curls said.

Sleipnir’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the desk. What did this kid think he was doing?

“Is that true, Jamie?” Mr Allan asked. “I guess you’ve got all of the work done correctly then, if this class is so pointless to you.”

“No,” Jamie said. “We were talking about football instead. I don’t really see why I should give a crap about maths. Like I said last week, it’s not really gonna help me in my future is it?”

“You won’t be saying that when your GPA gets you kicked off the football team.”

“Well, I don’t really care do I, they’re all assholes. If they wanted to win they would actually listen to me.”

“Jamie, get out,” ordered Mr Allan, pointing to the door, “I’ll speak to you in a minute.”

 _But he won’t just speak to him, will he?_ Sleipnir thought. If it were Odin, if it were _anyone_ from Asgard (except for, apparently, his dad and Uncle Thor) that amount of disrespect from a minor would have warranted a severe whipping at the very least. Sleipnir was distantly aware that his breathing had started to become very fast, but he could do little else other than stare at Mr Allan.

“Whatever,” Jamie said, picking up his stuff and walking to the door.

“And you’ll wait _outside_ the door for me to come and speak to you.”

Jamie snorted. “No, I won’t. I’m going home.” And with that he stepped out of the classroom and slammed the door behind him.

Sleipnir bit his tongue as the teacher strode towards the closed door. Oh no, no way was Jamie getting out of this without debilitating injuries.

“Are you…crying?” Ben hissed incredulously, tapping him on the arm. Sleipnir threw himself backwards into the wall.

The whole classroom stared.

 

Tony was distracted from his welding by the appearance of a shadow, obscuring the wiring he was working on. He looked up to see Fury standing behind him, looking seriously down at him.

“Stark,” he began. “Secretary Pierce wants to know if you're going to hand over your plans for your arc reactor technology and the Einstein-Rosen bridge. The World Security Council are becoming increasingly concerned with your lack of openness about the project.”

Tony bristled. Not this again. Time to get straight to the point. “The World Security council can take their ‘concerns’ and shove them up their-”

“Stark!”

“What?” he asked lazily, years of practice at being yelled at by authority figures allowing him to take Fury’s tone in his stride.

Fury looked down at him in disappointment. “Stark, you're making a lot of people very agitated and that's not going to end well for you. If your father were here, he would know the value of sharing what he’d created. The only reason your arc reactor works is because of him, because of his discoveries that he shared. So, why don’t you get off your selfish ass and do something to help people?”

“Well, gee, I don’t know, Nick, maybe because I don’t trust what weapons you’d create with it?” he snapped. “I don’t trust you all not to start dealing from under the table.”

“Not everyone’s like Stane, Stark. Sometimes you have to trust that people will do the right thing.”

“This is coming from you?”

“Yeah.”

“The ‘the last time I trusted someone I lost an eye’ guy?”

“Look, Stark, I know it seems hard to believe, but when you have allies, you have to work with them.”

“I am. I’m working with Bruce and-”

“I meant Pierce and the Council.”

“Them being trustworthy is news to me. I’ve trusted people way more than I trust those guys and look where that got me. Look at what Natasha did.”

“Saved your life?”

“Forget it.”

“Stark.”

“No. If the world wants this technology, if they want a treaty with other realms, then they come to me, and my team. And that’s final.”

“Is that so?” Nick said slowly. “Then what assurances can you give that you’ll use the technology to people’s best interest, that _you_ won’t start dealing under the table. Trust works both ways Stark, and the world knows that you’re not infallible. If people think that we’re just letting you do this of your own will, with no checks, then they’re not going to be happy.”

“Then don’t tell them, spin them a load of bs, isn’t that what you spies are good at?”

“Don’t walk away from me, we haven’t finished here Stark.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Nick,” Tony said, sauntering towards the door. “Were you saying something, I suddenly just got this real craving for donuts, think I’ll head out to that nice place in Maine, be back in a few hours.”

“Stark.”

“Bye dear, don’t wait up for me.”

 

Tony fumed as he flew through the air.

How dare Fury try to use his dad against him? As if he knew anything about the man? At this thought, Tony conceded that perhaps he did, everyone seemed to know more about his father than him, the good things about his father at least. Tony guaranteed he knew more about the bad, child-neglecting sides than they did.

But what had Howard Stark done, apart from working on the Manhattan project and cruelly wiping out thousands of people mostly just to see if the bombs worked, leaving the survivors with disabilities and cancers, and creating Steve, the ‘super-soldier’ that he’d so promptly lost and then spent the rest of his life looking for.

Oh, he had left him a video which allowed him to save his own life, he did have that going for him. But Tony would be delusional if he didn’t think that it was just convenient how the new element didn’t poison him, and the whole reason for getting Tony to create a new element would be to carry on his own legacy, to get people to believe he was so amazing even after death. Not that he particularly needed help with that, and Howard's plan had definitely backfired when Tony had decided not to go public with his new element. Lots of tests into its uses were needed before he could do that; he couldn’t let a discovery with such untapped and unknown potential fall into the hands of those who wouldn’t use it for good.

And that bullshit message for him, saying he was Howard’s ‘greatest creation’ was clearly just designed to manipulate him and to manipulate anyone else who watched it into thinking that Howard was a good parent. As if he hadn’t effectively abandoned him and never even told Tony that he liked him. Huh, maybe Howard’s propaganda attempt was where Fury got his idea that Tony could be made to do what SHIELD and the Council wanted by throwing his father in his face, thinking that Tony should logically care about what his father would have done, and whether or not he would be disappointed in him. As if Tony hadn’t been trying to block out his father’s views for the majority of his life.

Tony grimaced as he thought of all the battles to come. People would keep trying to get the arc technology and the plans for the E-R bridge. And he might actually be afraid of this if he hadn’t put into place his own state of the art security to guard it, handpicked everyone on the team working on it and had Jarvis run a million background checks on them, and if he didn’t have Loki and his kids to succeed him. According to Loki they should live at least a couple thousand years longer, and Tony knew he could trust them to keep the planet safe to the best of their ability. The political climate would change, but if they wanted a closer relationship with other realms then trusting in himself and his friends was the best he could do right now.

When he landed in front of the donut place he found Loki outside, dressed in a dark green, almost Asgardian-style shirt and black skinny jeans, his arms folded and one eyebrow raised mischievously.

“Fury told me where you were, and I decided I wanted donuts too. He didn’t sound pleased at your decision.”

“Really?” Tony snapped sarcastically. “I thought he sounded thrilled that I once again refused to hand the plans over to him, Pierce and the rest of the Council.”

Loki bit his lip, seeming to draw in on himself slightly, and Tony deflated.

“Lokes, no, I’m not mad at you, Fury just pissed me off.”

Loki grinned wryly. “I know that, just the idea of people being angry around me seems to make me anxious still. Odin’s been dead for months and I know that it will take time I just…” he sighed.

Tony nodded in understanding. “Fathers, huh? Fury tried to use mine against me today. Made out that he would be helping and giving over the plans.”

“It doesn’t matter if he would,” Loki said, frowning. “We’ve all agreed that the plans don’t get given out beyond our circle. This is too dangerous, and I know there is something about Pierce that sets me on edge, even though Jarvis hasn’t been able to find anything. Though, they all set me on edge, I suppose. We can’t trust anyone we’re not certain about, not yet.”

“I know,” Tony sighed. “I just, I don’t even want to think about him, I wish people would stop acting like I’ll never measure up to him.”

“You are easily the better man, I know you Tony,” Loki said firmly.

“Tell that to the entire world.”

“Tell that to all those who idolise you as a super hero.”

Tony smiled despite himself.

“And my children _definitely_ wouldn’t prefer Howard over you.”

Tony laughed drily. “No, I guess not… I think Fury’s right though, Howard would have helped, even though it’s the wrong decision, he wouldn’t pass off an opportunity like this to show off his genius. He’d probably even stop searching for Steve to do so.”

“We should find him,” Loki said suddenly, his eyes alight with determination.

“Who?” Tony asked, completely bewildered by Loki's sudden pronouncement, something that didn’t happen often.

“Steve. The man your father wasted his life and ruined yours looking for. With my magic and your technology, if he’s to be found, we _will_ find him. What better thing to get Hela to rub into your father’s face in Helheim?”

“That is the single most insane idea I’ve ever heard. And I have at least a hundred insane ideas per day.” Tony said, a grin spreading over his face.

Loki raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Let’s do it.”

They grinned at each other, and kissed in a way that could have turned into full on making out in the middle of the street if Tony didn’t feel like his mind had been set ablaze by this new idea.

“Right, we need brain food,” he said, pushing open the shop door.

“No, wait!” Loki said frantically, waving his hands desperately and muttering something.

“What?” Tony asked, confused, still holding the door open for Loki.

Someone screamed and something else smashed.

“Iron Man…” the cashier breathed as Tony swung round to gauge the situation.

“Can your suit turn invisible now?” a little boy questioned, clutching a plastic dinosaur and gazing up at Tony with an awed expression on his chocolate-smeared face.

“You cloaked us, didn’t you?” Tony asked.

Loki shrugged nonchalantly, sliding past Tony to order donuts and leaving him alone with the tide of people that now wanted his autograph.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope you all enjoyed that very belated chapter!
> 
> Next up: Sleipnir and Loki talk.  
> Loki and Tony search for Captain America.


	3. Searching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleipnir and Loki talk  
> The search for Captain America continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like a broken record constantly apologising for the lack of updates now, but I really am sorry. What can I say except my life kinda went to shit? A friend died, I'm super worried that other people I care about will do too, and coupled with lingering anxiety and self-hatred from France (just because I know exactly what emotional abuse is and read/write about it all the time doesn't mean I am good at going 'hey, maybe you didn't deserve any of it and you are not a complete failure of a human being?' to myself) I kinda spiralled into the worst depression I've ever had. So...there's that....
> 
> Anyways...quick reminder on what's happened so far in this story (for the summary of the first fic in the series, see the first chapter)  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaked out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin.  
> \- Tony and Loki have decided to look for Captain America
> 
> Thank you all so much for all the comments, kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions, you guys are wonderful and you all make my day! For the commenters that I haven't replied to, I will go reply right now, I figured you'd prefer a new chapter rather than a reply. I really really appreciated them but uh, see above for reasons I've been shit at showing it, I'm really so sorry as comments give me life and mean so much!
> 
> 20/01/2019

"We did finger-painting!" Hel said excitedly. "Look at what I did, can you guess what it is?"

Loki looked down at the smudged grey picture...it could, with a bit of imagination, have been an extremely-ill spider.

"Why don't you tell me?" Loki asked, going for the safe option.

"It's Dum-E and U and Butterfingers!" she exclaimed. "They're having a party."

"Oh?"

"With cake," Hel said firmly.

"It's wonderful Hel," Loki said, and meant it. "I think you should show it to them when we get back, and then we'll see about hanging it up somewhere."

"Do you think Uncle Tony would want it in his workshop?" Hel asked.

"I'm sure he'd love to have it there."

"Yay!" and with that Hel threw her arms tightly around him again. Loki carefully prised the picture out of her grasp before it could get even more crumpled.

"Look, your brothers are coming now too."

Fenrir and Jormungandr came speeding towards them, Jormungandr's jumper was trailing on the dusty ground behind him and Fenrir was smeared with paint.

"Father!" Jormungandr said. "You need to find Harry and tell him that he's wrong, this isn't a woolly mammoth, it's a  _bilgesnipe_ , because he keeps trying to tell me it's a mammoth but he's  _wrong_!"

Loki looked down at Jormungandr's finger painting. It was, for a child in the middle of their second century, a very good drawing, and if you put your head on one side and squinted, it did, actually, look very much like a bilgesnipe.

"Perhaps," Loki said diplomatically, having no idea what a 'woolly mammoth' was, "a woolly mammoth is just what they call bilgesnipes on Midgard."

As Loki lead the children into a secluded alleyway and got them ready to teleport, he beamed, he felt near-ready to explode with happiness. His children loved school; they loved their teacher, they loved singing songs and playing games, they loved being dinosaurs at recess with the other kids, they loved learning how to write, they loved everything (except for being told that their bilgesnipe was a woolly mammoth, apparently). This was exactly what he had hoped for, his children being happy, carefree,  _normal_ children, not worrying about all that they'd been through in the past.

The elation he felt turned abruptly into a void of dread in his stomach as soon as he saw Sleipnir though. He was so pale and shaky he seemed ill. As he stumbled towards them, almost in a daze, Loki rushed forwards to meet him. Sleipnir flinched slightly as Loki wrapped his arms around him, but then he melted into the hug, gripping Loki back so tightly Loki was slightly worried about his ability to breathe.

Loki glanced around briefly, noting the smirks of some of the other students as they stared at the two of them (perhaps, here, like on Asgard, hugging your parents was not something an older child did in public?) and then caught the gaze of a middle-aged man. His hair was flecked with grey and he wore a blue tie with maths equations dotted over it. He stared at Loki, eyes narrowed in suspicion, before grimacing and turning away to walk back inside. This, Loki thought, was not good.

 

 

Mr Allan frowned as he walked back into the building.

There was something clearly very wrong with Sleipnir; he was going to find out what it was.

He had tried to talk to Sleipnir after the lesson, tried to see if he could get any explanations out of him as to why the kid had been silently crying and had thrown himself back against a wall. The confrontation between himself and Jamie had clearly scared Sleipnir, but why? Surely he should be used to teenagers being little shits and teachers getting pissed off with them? The explanation that he kept falling back on was that Sleipnir must have suffered from or be suffering from abuse, perhaps he even post-traumatic stress disorder?

This is why he needed to get a new job. Not only was the workload too much, the pay too shit, the students too argumentative, you also had to deal with shit like this. The problem with teaching kids is that you were responsible for them, you had a duty of care, and you spent your free time worrying about them. With kids like Jamie it was easier, you didn't know if they were acting out because that was what they did, or whether it was because they had a crap home-life, and you probably never would know. So you did your best and tried to not think about it. With kids like Sleipnir it was more serious, there was something very obviously wrong. Not that Sleipnir had told him anything, he had just frozen, his breath coming in short gasps. Mr Allan had eventually given up, pressed one of the chocolates he kept hidden in his desk that were reserved for particularly stressful marking into Sleipnir's palm, assured him he could come and talk to him about anything he wanted anytime, and sent him to Lunch.

After filling in a concern slip and placing it in Sleipnir's file he had got on with the rest of the day as best he could. After teaching his last period of the day he had gone outside with the students, hoping to see if he could catch a glimpse of Sleipnir's parents, try to get a feel for what he was dealing with. His eyes widened with shock when he saw a tall man with long dark hair run over and throw his arms round the child. Sleipnir shuddered and then threw his arms round the man that looked like an older version of him and was almost certainly his dad. Mr Allan's eyes narrowed. That was...unexpected. He had expected the kid to be ignored by a parent, to be shouted at, or maybe even to walk home alone. His eyes caught the man's, who looked almost ill with worry.

He turned away hurriedly and walked back inside. Well, whatever issues Sleipnir had they were probably not caused by his dad, which was unexpected. The question was who were they caused by? His Mum? Another family member? This would call for some more investigating.

 

 

"Tony?" Loki called as soon as they had arrived back in the mansion.

"Yes, dear?" Tony said, swooping up the lab stairs to greet the kids. He had promised he would be there for them when they got back but Loki had been half-expecting him to be holed up in the labs, completely obsessed with finding Captain America. Not for any malicious reason, more because he would get caught up in something and not realise the time. But here he was.

Loki smiled softly, his boyfriend was such a good person, even if he couldn't always see it, and this was proof that he could never become Howard.

"Do you mind looking after the triplets for a bit?"

"No problem," Tony said, blowing a raspberry on Fenrir's stomach and then swinging him around while the boy giggled uncontrollably. He gave Sleipnir an encouraging smile before he and Loki disappeared again.

"Now," Tony said, "who wants to see the cool stuff I ordered for the swimming pool last night?"

 

 

Sleipnir snuggled next to Loki. They were sitting on the sand on Tony's private beach, looking out at the crashing waves. It was about as far away from the stables as you could get, miles and miles of open space stretched out in front of them and the smell of the sea-breeze filled their nostrils. Sleipnir had a supply of juice boxes by his side, they were sweet and tasted like nothing he'd had on Asgard, and Loki had brought them along as he knew they helped to distract and calm him.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Loki asked quietly.

"I don't want to go back to school," Sleipnir mumbled, gripping Loki tighter.

"Why?"

"Because everyone thinks I'm so  _weird_!" Sleipnir sobbed. "I don't know how to talk to people and my accent's weird and I keep doing stupid weird stuff and I had an anxiety attack today and..." he cut off to start crying in earnest and Loki's heart broke.

"Sleipnir," Loki said, rubbing his son's back. "Of course you don't know how to talk to people and of course your accent's a bit odd, you haven't grown up like they have, you've spent five hundred years as a horse being abused by that _monster_. That's something that they can never understand. You don't have to be perfect, you're stronger and have been through more than they ever have."

Sleipnir hiccoughed. "It doesn't feel like I'm stronger, not when I flinch from everything, not when I start crying and panicking when everyone else is fine."

Loki looked into the distance. "I do the same," he said. "Tony says it's normal, it's a normal response to trauma. It will fade with time, sometimes things will get a bit worse, sometimes they'll get better, but it will be okay in the end. You've just got to keep fighting, both of us do.

"What happened that made you have an anxiety attack?"

"This kid was really disrespectful to a teacher and I couldn't understand _why_ he'd do it! I just wanted to scream at him to stop. I kept thinking about what would happen if he'd acted like that on Asgard, about how badly he would have been beaten. About what Odin and some of the other people did to me when I misbehaved...or when you misbehaved."

Loki's breath caught in his throat and he choked out a sob. "I am so, so sorry for that," he said, holding Sleipnir tighter, trying not to think of all the times that Odin had punished Sleipnir instead of him to hurt Loki. It had been very effective, Loki had found watching Odin punishing Sleipnir for Loki's infractions even worse than being punished for them himself. "If I could have stopped him..."

"You would have, I know, you did your best," Sleipnir said, his voice muffled as he clung to Loki. "And he punished you for my misbehaviour sometimes too, so I suppose we are even... That was supposed to be a joke, Father," he clarified after Loki didn't respond.

"Oh," Loki said. "Ha, ha?" He could almost feel Sleipnir rolling his eyes at him. There was a pause for a while as they looked out at the ocean.

"Father, I've been thinking, you can't have been much older than me when you had me, could you?"

"No I wasn't," Loki said grimly, trying to keep his voice under control and not let the sudden panic seep in, trying not to imagine Sleipnir going through what he had.

"Did you want me?" Sleipnir asked, so quietly that Loki wouldn't have heard him if he hadn't been listening very carefully.

"Of course I did!" Loki said firmly. "I hadn't been planning on having a child and the circumstances of your conception were... less than ideal, but-"

"How did you have sex with a horse?"

Loki coughed. "That, I think, is a conversation for another day."  _Preferably another_ _millennium_ , he added in his head.

"But why, I want to know, I deserve to know about my other father!"

"Sleipnir, I understand that you have a right to know, but it's not a very nice story, and you're already very upset, I don't want to make you more anxious." He sighed. "I swear to you I will tell you when you are older."

"Alright," Sleipnir grumbled. "But do you want me? Because all I do is freak out and be weird and cause problems."

"Sleipnir," Loki said, his voice breaking. "I have wanted you ever since you were but a spark of life inside of me, I have wanted you your entire life and I will always want you. You are my son and my love for you is unconditional. You are wonderful and I would do anything for you. I don't care that you 'freak out' because if anyone can understand that I can, and, I think, the weird people are the best people...take Tony for instance..."

Sleipnir snorted and then started bawling into Loki's shirt. Loki held him tight and rocked him gently as he stared out across the crashing waves.

"Do I still have to go to school tomorrow?" Sleipnir asked after he had calmed down.

Loki sighed. "Yes," he said. "You can't let this defeat you, you'll be okay in the end. Try for me, just for two weeks, and if it doesn't work out we'll see about putting off sending you to school for a while."

Loki could practically hear the cogs in Sleipnir's brain turning as he considered the proposition.

"Okay," he said. "As long as Tony helps me with my maths homework."

"Done." Loki said. "Now drink your juice up you've become very dehydrated."

 

"And then," Tony said. "The magician looked at the illusion he'd created and laughed. The dwarfs weren't really gonna sew his mouth shut, because that would not be cool!"

"And then Dum-E sprays them with the fire-extinguisher!" Hel interrupted, cackling. Loki blinked. Well, this was a deviation from the children's normal favourite bedtime story.

"Yes, that's exactly what happens," said Tony.

"And then they fly away on a dragon," Fenrir said.

"No! They should use an Iron Man suit!" Jormungandr argued.

"That's stupid!"

"What if the magician uses the Iron Man suit and Dum-E, U and Butterfingers ride the dragon?"  Sleipnir suggested, clearly wanting to avoid conflict.

There came a chorus of mumbled agreements.

"And on that note I think it's time for you kiddiewinks to go to sleep." Tony interrupted.

"No! It's too early!" That was Hel.

"But you want to have loads of energy so you can have fun at school tomorrow, don't you want to be a dinosaur at lunch again?"

"Yeah!" Hel exclaimed.

"Come on then," that was Sleipnir's I'm-a-responsible-big-brother voice. "It's time for us to go to sleep."

Loki poked his head round the door. His four children were snuggled into the queen sized bed that they shared. Loki had suggested that they all get their own beds, but Fenrir, Hel and Jormungandr had spent over fifty years sharing a bed when they were hiding from Odin and they weren't about to stop now, Loki wasn't about to take away something that made them feel safe. Sleipnir had decided to join then, to protect them and keep them company, he said, and to make sure they weren't silly and went to sleep, but probably because he felt safer with them too. Sleipnir would likely wake up early and sneak off to read and surf the internet. Jarvis was teaching him about memes, whatever they were.

After Loki had hugged and kissed them all and sang calming songs for the benefit of the triplets (including not only Asgardian lullabies, but also a song from 'The Land Before Time' at Jormungandr's request) he slipped out of the room after Tony.

"Thank you for looking after them this evening. You're so good with them, better than I had ever hoped, and they're so happy... I'm so... I can't thank you enough," Loki said softly as they walked along the corridor and down into the workshop. "I know I should have been more help but..." he trailed off.

Tony rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Lokes it's okay," he said. "You were feeling panicky after your conversation with Sleipnir and you needed time to calm down and recharge, it's okay, it happens, it's normal."

"But I feel like I need to be there for them."

"And now you can be even more there for them because you've recharged."

Loki sighed. "What would I do without you?"

"Be only slightly less awesome. Come on, I want to find Dad's Greatest Creation."

 

It took them three hours and 27 minutes to construct an algorithm using Loki's magic and various satellites.

"You ready?" Loki asked.

"For your freaky tech version of scrying? Yes." Tony nodded decisively. Loki could see from his lover's eyes that he was just about brimming with anxiety, but his determination was stronger, he would do this.

"Okay," Loki said, putting a hand on a collection of wires and closing his eyes, beginning to chant. Two minutes later a ping came from Jarvis's speakers and a red blip appeared on Tony's screen. Loki opened his eyes and smiled. "Found him," he said.

"Really?"

Loki nodded.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Tony said.

 

They left the sleeping kids in the care of Bruce, Jane and Thor, and Loki teleported them to the coordinates that had appeared on the screen. The wind howled around them and Tony was glad he'd decided to wear the suit he had specially built for journeys to Jotunheim, a snowstorm couldn't stop his body temperature from being toasty warm. Loki was still wearing his black skinny jeans and green shirt but his skin shifted to blue upon his arrival. Loki might still have issues with his jotun appearance but Tony had to admit that it was useful, also, arguably more importantly, he had to admit that Loki looked hot.

"So, do your melty magic and lets get this over with," Tony said, gritting his teeth, glad that Loki wouldn't be able to tell that he was shaking through his armour. Okay he got to one up his dad, but what if Captain America was still alive, like Howard thought he would be, what then? He didn't think he could take any snide comments from his father's golden boy, couldn't stand more years of not being good enough. It didn't matter though, Rogers's opinion shouldn't matter and goddammit it  _wouldn't_. He was his own man, and it was unlikely Rogers would want to stick around anyway.

Anyway, he'd probably be dead, no one survived being frozen solid, so why should a super soldier? Especially after 70 years. No, it would be fine. He would find the captain's dead body, bring it back, be hailed a hero, and spit on his father's grave, and that would be that. Job done, mystery solved, fuck you Howard.

He watched as Loki melted a hole in the wreckage of the aircraft and created a path towards the body. Slowly, agonisingly, the ice dripped away, and there, lying still as stone and frozen, was a foot, a leg, a SHIELD. And they'd done it, they'd actually done it, they'd found the body of Captain America. This was one of the most incredible feelings he'd ever felt, complete vindication, absolute triumph and smugness and then...

"He's alive," Loki said.

Tony's good mood shattered.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed that!
> 
> Next up:  
> Laufey et al. come round for dinner  
> Captain America wakes up and discovers that it's 2011. He has no clue what is happening but blue aliens are apparently a thing in the future.  
> This may be the last POV from Mr Allan, I wasn't exactly expecting to write anything about him tbh, it just happened!? There will probably be a bit more stuff about him tho from Sleipnir's POV along the lines of can this dude leave me alone?!?
> 
> Um, so, it would be great if you guys could leave a comment, even if it's just a word, just so I know that you're still reading and you're still interested in where this is going. Obviously, no pressure, I used to get serious anxiety about leaving comments so absolutely zero pressure, it would just mean so much to me if some of you could!
> 
> Also, please don't forget to subscribe, because I am Terrible at remembering to subscribe to things and then I'm like...have I read that fic before...who knows...might have done????
> 
> Hope to have more up soon!


	4. A dinner out-of-time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.
> 
> "Tony..." Bruce asked hesitantly. "Did you clone Captain America?"
> 
> Steve comes to the realisation that some people from the future are blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so, slightly over two weeks since my last update, I think I'm getting back into the swing of things?
> 
> For a summary of 'The Monster Under the Bed' please see the first chapter.  
> What's happened so far in 'A Quiet Normal Life'?  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin  
> \- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative  
> \- Loki and Sleipnir talk about school and Odin and Loki convinces Sleipnir to keep trying to go to school for a bit  
> \- Tony and Loki find Captain America
> 
> Hel = Loki's daughter, Goddess of Death  
> Hela = Odin and Frigga's daughter, Queen of Helheim, Goddess of Life  
> They both share a sort of psychic link.
> 
> Thank you all so much for all the comments, kudos, bookmarks and subsctiptions! You guys are all amazing!!!
> 
> 05/02/19

"Hey, Helblindi," Darcy asked one of Loki's space-alien brothers. "Could you pass the sweet-and-sour pork?"

"Of course," Helblindi replied, putting down the chopsticks Thor was teaching him how to use (Darcy thought the big guy had really got the hang of them during her time away in Asgard) and passing her the bowl.

"Thanks dude."

"You're very welcome." Helblindi shot her a grin. Darcy ginned back. It had been kinda weird meeting them earlier, she mused, but hey, she'd seen weirder things than really tall blue people over the last few months, and they seemed super nice so far. They _definitely_ seemed better than most of the Asgardian nobles anyway.

"So, then what did... Fre...?"

Darcy turned her attention back to Bruce, "Freyjr."

"Freyjr - thank you - say?" Bruce asked, before forking some biryani into his mouth.

"He was all like 'I don't think we should listen to what Midgardians have to say, not least a Midgardian  _woman_ , because here on Asgard we are _so-_ mighty and we think women are only good for 'decoration'," Darcy snorted. "Like, I'm sorry I want to drag your butts out of the dark ages. 'Why should the peasants vote?' oh I don't know, because they're  _people_? Ugh."

"Things have been bad," Frigga confirmed, delicately cutting a slice of pizza into small chunks. "Arguably we did commit regicide."

"By helping to kill Odin?"

"Yes." Frigga nodded. "We can argue that Odin was out of his mind, that he wasn't a fit king and his actions have led to the slaughter of many people. But then the council members state that if they deem that  _I_ am not a good ruler, does that not give them the right to dispose of me? I want to give the people more choice, to make them feel as if they have some say in the running of the realm,  I do not want to be as Odin once was. However, giving the people power to disagree gives them power over myself. I cannot try to set up a constitutional monarchy and then throw people in jail for speaking against me."

"You absolutely could, Mum," Hela said.

"Yes," Frigga said. "But that would rather undermine my position as someone who doesn't want to run a 'police state' as Darcy terms it. It has not all been bad though," she brightened, "many of the lower classes do like the idea of having a voice, we have rounded up most of the radicals who were doing more than just complaining, and I've survived five attempts on my life so far."

"I tased two of the assassins," Darcy added. She was still super-proud of that event. Afterwards, she'd had to explain that she really didn't have magic and had promised to get all her handmaidens tasers. That was something she needed to remember to speak to Tony about before she left.

"This food is most delicious, Thor, what did you say it was called?" Byleistr's voice came from the end of the table.

"A roast potato," Thor replied.

"Though do tell us if you start to feel ill," Loki encouraged, looking worried, or in other words wearing his normal expression. "What we're feeding you is very different from frozen meat."

"We'll be fine," Laufey assured him. "We want to try all types of your Migardians' cuisine. I, for one, would be very happy importing apples once you have the Bridge finished and your politicians are somewhat in agreement."

Just then, Hela tapped on a glass and got to her feet. Darcy glanced up at her friend in surprise. "So," she said, rearranging her brightly-coloured sundress and glancing round at them all. "I just wanted to say that, well, do you remember how on Jotunheim I talked about Lady Death leaving the throne to me and going to look for this Titan called Thanos? Well, he hasn't stopped killing people, and-"

"Hela," Loki interrupted, his eyes flickering pointedly to his children. Darcy could see that they looked tense and all but Hel looked scared. "Is this really an appropriate conversation to be having right now."

Hela grimaced. "I just wanted to tell you all that I'm leaving, it's gone on too long, and he's getting closer to here. I need to figure out what he's doing, and how to stop him, before he gets too powerful, even if all the other Deaths don't want me too."

"Why wouldn't they want you to?" Darcy asked, frowning.

"He's sacrificing people in their name, it kinda gives them a thrill and boosts their power." Hela shrugged. "But, there needs to be a balance between the living and the dead, and he's upsetting it."

Loki frowned. "Is that why Hel's magic has been getting significantly stronger lately?"

"I expect so." Hela nodded. "But, the thing is, I need to tell you all about this tonight because you're not going to be able to contact me through Hel anymore, I'll be too far away."

"Does that mean you're not going to be in my head anymore?" Hel spoke up quietly.

"I'm afraid so."

"No!" Hel yelled. "You can't do that to me! You're always there when I need you, you can't just go!

"Excuse me," Jarvis interrupted. "I feel the need-"

"Not now J," Tony said.

"But Sir, it's important-"

"Jarvis, I can guarantee imminent magical meltdown is-"

A man burst into the room. Darcy stared at him. There was no denying that he was Hot. There was also no denying that saying he looked freaked out would be an understatement.

"Stark! What-" he asked, and then cut off abruptly. "Where...? Why are those people _blue_?"

 

Steve groaned and opened his eyes. Then he shut them again. He was fairly sure this was the most confortable bed he had ever slept in and the sheets had no right to be so luxuriously soft, he'd never felt anything like it! One thing was for certain, he'd grown up in the depression and there was a war on, he'd take what he get for as long as he could justify it, because the bed had no right to be so comfortable.

Steve's eyes swung open again and he stared up at the shadow covered ceiling. He was right, the bed did have no right to be so comfortable. So where the hell was he?

He pushed himself up and looked around the room. As he rose, the room seemed to lighten and he could suddenly see into every corner. It was far bigger than any room had any right to be, especially as it only seemed to contain a really oversized double bed and a very fancy dresser. There was something that could have been considered to have been a painting on one of the walls. In Steve's opinion it wasn't very good.

He pushed himself out of bed and gasped as his foot sank into the carpet. Was everything so soft here? Steve allowed himself to grin as he stood up and wriggled his feet in the carpet. The only comparison he could come up with was if a carpet had somehow been fused with very clean and dry grass. It felt wonderful.

He made his way over towards a dark reflective panel, smiling at every luxurious step. He thought it was a window, it must be, just bigger and more elegant than he'd ever seen. It practically made up one of the walls without any breaks that he could see, and it was  _curved_. Steve pressed his face to the cool glass and peered through. Yes, it was a window. It was night outside and he could see stars twinkling in the sky. When he looked down he could just make out a beach and some sand. Where was he? Well, wherever it was it was incredible, and definitely owned by someone who had more money than sense. Stark.

Then he remembered. 

The shield, the missions,  _Bucky!,_ and then he had been on a plane and fighting Red Skull and Peggy had been crying and he had crashed the plane. The last thing he could remember had been an all consuming cold.

Had he died?

This wasn't what he thought heaven would be, not at all. Everything was clean and comfy and everything, but it really wasn't his style.

No, he decided. Something must have happened after he'd got in the water, and he'd just forgotten it. For some reason he couldn't remember it however hard he strained his mind, but he was sure it would come back to him, he had an enhanced memory from being a super soldier after all. And now, he must be at Stark's, because he was the only person Steve knew that could even think up a place as strange and futuristic as this.

But, it was a bit too strange, a bit too different. He'd been to some of Howard's places before and they hadn't looked anything like this.

Maybe he'd lost more memory than he'd thought he had. How old was Peggy, had he even been to the dance with her?

"Stark?" he yelled experimentally.

"Mr Stark is downstairs, Captain Rogers" a voice replied. It sounded almost like Jarvis had done. A new butler then? No, it sounded too similar. Had Jarvis just gotten older? "If you could just wait-"

"Jarvis, where are you?"

"I'm not sure how to explain, Sir," Jarvis said.

Steve frowned, surely it couldn't be that difficult. But then again Stark did make his butler help him with some strange inventions.

"Jarvis, how long ago did I crash the plane?"

"That was rather a while ago, I'm afraid, if you would just wait for-"

But Steve was done waiting. He needed to know what was going on, he needed to know where he was, he needed to know what had happened to everyone, what had happened to Peggy. Had they been on their dance?

Steve rushed down the stairs and towards a room  in which a lot of people were clearly congregated. Stark would be in there, he would never miss a party, he would explain things.

He burst into the room. "Stark! What-" he said, and then stopped. Which one of them was Howard? "Where-" No, wait- "why are those people blue?"

Blue! He'd never seen blue people before. Where was he that blue people existed? Maybe he really was dead. Perhaps he was dreaming.

"Tony..." a man with dark, curly hair asked hesitantly. "Did you clone Captain America?"

"He's Captain America?" a woman with long, dark hair and an entirely too revealing blouse for polite company demanded.

"Look, I can explain," a man said, striding easily towards him. He looked like Howard but at the same time he didn't look like Howard at all. "I didn't clone him, yes he is Captain America." Not-Howard extended a hand towards Steve. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"What is happening?" Steve asked, his mind whirring. "Where's Howard, are you his brother, his cousin?"

"Actually no, I'm his son."

"You can't be," Steve said. "Howard doesn't have a son."

"Yeah, we're gonna need to catch you up a bit," Howard's... son?... grimaced. "Jarvis didn't think you'd wake up so soon or we would have cancelled the party. Look... would you like anything to eat?"

"Not really," Steve replied. He probably could have eaten, he did feel a bit dizzy and his metabolism always needed feeding, but he needed to find out what was going on more, and he wasn't going to let anything distract him from that."

"Okay then," the man said. "The thing is, there's no easy way to say this and I am really regretting saving you right now. I swear, if I'd thought about the whole explaining part, I would never have done it. Anyway, look, it's January 4 2011, you've been a capsicle for 65 years."

"But-" Steve spluttered. There was no way this could be true, could it? "How?"

"Do you remember your plane going down into the ice?" Steve nodded. "Right, well, you were frozen solid. Howard dedicated his life to finding you, but he didn't manage it. Loki-" he indicated a thin young man whose dark hair fell to just below his ears- "and I found you last night."

"When you say he dedicated his life..." Steve said slowly, trailing off and not daring to finish the question.

"He's dead Steve, he died in a car accident almost twenty years ago now."

Steve felt like all the breath had been knocked out of him and he slumped back against the archway. None of this was true, it couldn't be, and yet...

"We're really sorry for your loss," a woman said, and Steve looked up, blinking back tears. She had mousy brown hair and seemed dwarfed by a huge man who had even more muscles than Steve did. The blue men were sitting around her, but Steve did not have the mental energy to deal with them right now.

"I'm sure we could arrange for you to visit his grave," Jarvis's voice spoke up again.

"That would be great Jarvis, thanks," Steve said, trying to manage a smile and failing miserably. "Hey, at least you're still here."

"Um, Steve," the younger Stark said, almost apologetically. "That's not Jarvis, he died too. I made this Jarvis as a replacement."

"Oh," Steve said, unsure as to whether be upset about Jarvis's death or to be morbidly intrigued as to how you made a person. He opted for the latter as confusion was better than grief.

"How did you make another Jarvis... was it like in Frankenstein?" he hazarded.

Stark laughed. "No. God, how do I explain this to someone from the Dark Ages..."

"I'm not-"

"He's like, a machine, that can think and has feelings and kinda runs my house."

"Don't worry Steve," the small, dark haired boy spoke up. "Jarvis is super helpful and he can explain anything you want him to. He can play you holograms and tell you all about Midgard and he lives in all the walls, so if you ever have a question (or are feeling really scared) he'll be there to help!"

"Thank you," Steve said. There didn't seem to be anything else to say. "What about..."

"Peggy?" Stark asked, and he nodded. "She's still around."

Steve let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, that sounds right, she's too stubborn to let death take her. I-"

"Where's Hel?" the skinny man exclaimed suddenly, leaping out of his seat.

"She went with Hela when Steve arrived," the same boy explained. "I think she's gone to calm down."

The man collapsed back into his chair. "Thank the Norns. Though I can't believe I didn't notice she was gone!"

"Worry not, Brother," the muscled man said. "I too, was very distracted by the arrival of Steve."

Howard's son walked over and put his arm around the clearly distressed man. "Hey, it's okay," he said, his body language and tone making Steve wonder about the nature of their relationship. "I've told you about my dad right, you know no one else can focus on anyone else once Steve comes along."

The man smiled wryly.

Suddenly, there came a whine and a pawing at his feet. Steve looked down in surprise to see a grey puppy. Smiling softly, he crouched down to stroke the small animal. Everything else was way to much to cope with, he thought, but a puppy? A puppy was something he could cope with right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fenrir to the rescue!  
> So, I really hope you all enjoyed that!
> 
> Next up: Steve tries to adjust to modern day life, but he keeps reeling with new discoveries and trying to deal with the old ones.  
> Steve and Tony talk.  
> Sleipnir makes a friend.
> 
> Please subscribe if you'd like to, I forget like half the time as the button is at the top of the page :(
> 
> Also, an important question. Should Stucky have been a thing? Should Steve have just been pining after Bucky but not really knowing what he felt/realising it and hating himself for it because of the attitudes of the time? Should they just have been friends? Idk :/


	5. Adjusting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Thor tries to help Steve deal with his grief and confusion.  
> Steve discovers that not everything is boiled in the future and he and Tony argue/talk.  
> Sleipnir makes a friend (kind of).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, I've got lots of assessments and a dance show coming up so am kind of internally screaming. But writing helps keep me sane so I'm slowly getting through this. On the plus side my mental health seems to be improving and I finally have a counselling session next week!
> 
> For what happened in the first fic see the summary in the first chapter.  
> What's happened so far in this fic?  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin  
> \- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative  
> \- Loki and Sleipnir talk about school and Odin and Loki convinces Sleipnir to keep trying to go to school for a bit  
> \- Tony and Loki find Captain America  
> \- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.  
> \- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|
> 
> Thank you guys all so much for all the comments, kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions, you all help make this a joy to write!
> 
> 09/03/19

"Mr Rogers," new-fangled-Jarvis announced, causing Steve to jump slightly at the interruption, the yellow crayon in his hand narrowly avoiding scraping over the carefully drawn words on his pilfered sketchpad. "I thought you ought to know that your new clothes have been delivered. Thor has signed for them and wishes to know if your request to be alone extends to him bringing them to you."

Steve frowned, wondering if he could bear to be with another stranger in this odd new world where people were blue and puppies could turn into children. The latter had given him the fright of his life. He had almost whacked the kid on instinct before he'd realised it was a boy and not an imminent threat. Though it wouldn't have mattered whether he had been able to stop himself because the next second had found him slammed backwards into the wall by an invisible force. Through the haze of plaster dust he had been threatened by the younger Stark (Tony, he reminded himself), pleaded his innocence, demanded to know what had just happened, been given a confusing explanation about magic from the boy's father - Loki - who seemed to alternative between intense anxiety for the shape-shifting child (who seemed fine), rage and panic. In the past Steve would have scoffed at the idea of magic existing, but that was before he'd been flung into the wall by it and seen a dog (or was it a wolf?) change into a child, and honestly, it wasn't that much stranger than anything else that had happened to him in the last few years.

There came a knock at the door and Steve sighed, realising he hadn’t given Jarvis an answer. All he wanted to do was curl up in his soft new bed and mourn.

Instead he said "come in," because even if his Ma had been dead for about eighty years now she had raised him to be polite.

The door swung open to reveal the tall, blonde man who had been present the night before. Steve stared at the bulging muscled arms that were currently holding several boxes and wondered if this man was a result of another super soldier experiment. He looked stronger than Steve. And being stronger than Steve was not something normal people were capable of.

"I thought you would want your own clothes as soon as possible," the man said, his British accent making Steve very determined to stop thinking about Peggy. "How do you fare?"

"Huh, um, I'm fine," Steve replied. "If that's what you're asking."

"It is," Thor confirmed before putting down the boxes and staring at Steve thoughtfully. Steve nodded at him uncomfortably. "Captain, I realise that it can be seen as unmanly for a warrior to admit his feelings. However, I am no stranger to loss, nor of finding oneself in a strange place with unfamiliar customs. If you wish to talk with me, I will do my best to listen and give counsel."

Steve blinked, British people could talk strange, sure, but he'd never heard any of them use the kind of words Thor did. "Uh, thanks," he said. "It is a lot to take in. I'm not sure what to do with myself."

"I usually learn about this Realm with Jarvis and my brother's children for several hours each day," Thor offered. "Though that is now only reserved for weekends as the children are at school. You would be very welcome to join us. I also tend to my goats and spend time with my girlfriend. If you wish we could go and visit my goats up on the cliffs now, you get a very good view of the sea from up there and I often find that working with goats lends itself to peace and reflection."

"That would be great," Steve said, trying to smile. He didn't exactly want to go outside with Thor, he wanted to be alone, but he had vivid images of Bucky dragging him to the pictures after his Ma had died (it hadn't exactly been difficult, he had weighed next to nothing), shouting over Steve's protests that he'd been moping inside for three weeks, it wasn't healthy, and he needed to get out and do something to feel normal. Steve didn't know if goats in this century  _were_  normal (he had been fooled by a puppy yesterday after all) but he hoped they were, and he had visions of Bucky's ghost calling him a punk and attempting to kick his ass for not taking this opportunity.

He put the crayon back in the tin box and started to close the sketchbook.

"What did you draw?"

Steve flushed, reopening the book to show Thor. Thor was a stranger and everyone, even Bucky (though he had been good-natured about it), teased Steve about his love of drawing. Steve had tried not to let it bother him, it had been one of the only things he had been able to do as a frequently bed-ridden child, and he was good at it. The serum had only improved his control of a pencil and eye for detail.

"It's the Howling Commandos," Steve explained, looking down at the laughing faces and the carefully etched 'Rest in Peace' at the top of the page. "They're all dead now, I'm the only one left."

"It is beautiful," Thor declared. "Your artwork does them a great honour."

"I hope it does," Steve said. "I feel like I have to do something, you know."

"I do," Thor said gravely. "I have lived for over a millennium now and have lost many a shield brother. You must tell me about them. I have no doubt their deeds were worthy of sagas. Perhaps with Loki's help we could write one, he always had a gift for words and your friends should be duly remembered."

"Thank you, Thor," Steve said, blinking rapidly in case his eyes started to water, and feeling very moved despite the strangeness of what Thor had said. "That's very kind of you."

"It is no trouble," said Thor. "Now come, it will do you good to be out in the fresh air."

 

 

"Gentlemen," a voice said, and Steve looked up from where he had Thor in a headlock to see Tony looking at them nonchalantly, his hands in the pockets of his three-piece suit.

"Stark," Steve replied before Thor flipped Steve over his shoulder and onto his back. Steve winced at the breath was knocked out of him.

"Okay, I'm calling it, end of fight, ding ding ding and all that," Tony said. Steve sat up from the dirt to see the younger Stark grinning at them. Steve couldn't help laughing, partly because of the exhilaration of it all. Fighting Thor had been good. It was great to find someone that could challenge him in a fight and rolling in the dirt for the past half-hour or so had helped to work out the frustration that he'd been feeling since he'd woken. He'd been wanting to punch something for a while, but hadn’t thought Stark would have appreciated holes in his furniture, so when Thor had suggested that they spar he had leapt at the chance. "How're you feeling?" Stark asked.

"Better now I've fought Thor."

"Good," Tony said. "Loki and me came back to have lunch with you guys, if you want to come back inside."

"Sure," Steve said, and allowed Thor to pull him to his feet.

Once inside Steve went quickly to his room to change and wash up, Stark said he didn't have to, but he was sweaty and muddy and whatever Stark said he wasn't rude enough to eat in this fancy place looking like he was still in the trenches.

Steve came back downstairs to find the table strewn with what looked like the leftover food from yesterday. Thor was sitting at the table with the other two, looking pristine, and Steve frowned, no way had Thor had time to comb all the mud and tangles out of his long hair. He realised with a jolt that it must have been magic.

"Come and sit down, eat whatever you want," Stark offered. Steve pulled out a chair and sat down. With a dawning sense of horror he realised that he had no idea what half of this food was.

The plate nearest to him looked like it contained sliced vegetables (the ones that he couldn't identify at least seemed like they could be vegetables) and rice. He hadn't had rice much, growing up his diet had mainly consisted of stews and potatoes, things that his Ma could get cheap and knew how to cook. Although his diet had broadened since then, it hadn't been very adventurous and the only times he had ever eaten rice was when Bucky had dragged him round to his friend Amar's apartment and Amar's parents had insisted on feeding them. That hadn't lasted long, his memory was foggy on the subject but he thought Amar had moved out of Brooklyn before they'd become teenagers.

Steve helped himself to the vegetable rice and was about to dig in when Loki interrupted.

"Do you want me to heat it up?" he asked.

"No, it's fine," Steve said. "I wouldn't want to be any trouble."

"Let him do it all he needs to do is wave a hand," Stark smirked.

Steve’s eyes widened as he felt comprehension and wonder flow through him. "You mean you want to heat it up with magic?"

"Yes," Loki said.

"Okay then," Steve said, looking forward to hot food but even more so to seeing more of Loki's magic.

Loki squinted at the food, muttered something, and steam began to rise from the rice.

Steve stared at it in amazement.

"How does it work?" he asked.

Loki laughed and shook his head. "It's just energy transfer. If I tried to give you a more detailed explanation than that we'd be here all week."

Steve cautiously took a forkful of the vegetable rice. His eyes lit up in amazement. "These are  _vegetables_?"

Tony broke out into raucous laughter. "Yeah," he said through his glee. "Fried vegetables."

"I'm never eating boiled vegetables again!"

 

"I'd like to visit the Howling Commandos graves," Steve said after polishing off several plates of different nations' cuisines. Being in the future was now looking considerably less bleak.

Tony sighed. "Yeah you're gonna have to wait a bit for that."

Steve bristled automatically. "Why?"

"No one except us knows you're alive."

"So what?"

"So, we want to keep SHIELD off your back."

"SHIELD?"

"This super-secret organisation that I'm a consultant for. If they get their hands on you they won't let go, they'll want to make you into their pet super soldier."

"I think," Steve said, his teeth gritted, "that after the number of covert missions I've done I can handle the danger of visiting a few graves."

"You don't understand, there are cameras everywhere now, watching everyone."

"That sounds awful!" Steve's eyes widened. "Why do you work for them?"

"Because they're useful," Tony said. "Look, just give me a few days to set up a new identity for you, get Jarvis to familiarise you with modern technology, we don't want you freaking out over an iPod."

But Steve was stubborn to the bone and he was damned if he was going to give in. He needed to see his friends’ graves, he needed to. He needed to know they were really gone, to say goodbye, to come to terms with it. Maybe then he would stop feeling like he was stuck in limbo. "That's not good enough." he snapped.

"God," Tony sighed. "I always knew that you were-"

"I could go with him," Loki said quickly, Steve looked across at him and noticed that Loki was looking paler than usual and was shaking slightly. "I can glamour him, he'll be fine with me, no one will recognise him."

"I don't know what that means, but fine," Steve conceded, nevertheless hoping fervently that being glamoured didn't involve make-up.

"No." Tony said quickly.

"No?" Steve demanded. "What do you want, to keep me trapped here? What do you  _really_ want,  _Stark_?" 

"I am just  _trying_  to keep you safe," Tony snapped. "But if you're going to-"

"I think you both should calm down," Thor warned. Steve ignored him.

"You're working for an organisation that you say wants to use me. How do I know that that's not exactly what you're going to do and..."

He suddenly became aware that Loki's breathing had become fast and ragged. Steve looked towards him to see him racked with terror, nails digging into the table and gasping for breath like a fish out of water.

"He's having an asthma attack!" Steve leapt to his feet and would have vaulted across the table if Thor hadn't grabbed him.

"He's having a panic attack you fucking genius," Stark snapped.

"Tony," Thor growled.

"Stop!" Loki gasped out, choking for air, and everyone fell silent.

"Take the Captain and go," Tony said coldly, and against every instinct in his body that screamed at him that he needed to help and protect people Steve allowed himself to be led out onto the clifftop again. He barely looked in the direction he was going he was too focused on gazing back to where Tony was gripping Loki's hands and saying something that Steve couldn't make out.

"What's wrong with him?" Steve asked when they were once again out in the crisp winter breeze.

"Many unjust and terrible things have happened to my brother," Thor said, his expression serious. "Sometimes he gets reminded of those things and falls into a panic. Something that can trigger this is people arguing around him."

"So..." Steve said, trying to process this and not to let the guilt swallow him up (it _had_ been Tony's fault too). "It's like shell shock."

"The Allspeak has translated that very strangely for me," Thor said. "But I believe it to be a bit like that, yes."

 

 

Sleipnir had never known how bad something could smell until he'd discovered the boys’ restroom. He stepped round a puddle of what he hoped was water and wrinkled his nose as he washed his hands in the sink. When he had been a horse he had relieved himself in the corner of his stall and he was certain that that was more hygienic than this was.

The door opened violently, slamming against the red tile walls and Sleipnir squeaked and stepped backwards.

"I'm not fucking doing it!"

It was Jamie, the boy from Monday who'd had the courage to argue with the Maths teacher. Jamie hung up his phone, shoved it into his jacket pocket and then his gaze met Sleipnir's. He was livid.

Sleipnir took another step back out of pure, ingrained self-preservation.

"What are you looking at?" Jamie demanded, stepping towards Sleipnir, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Sleipnir opened and closed his mouth, no sound coming out. What was he meant to  _say_?

"You're that new kid, ain’t you?" said Jamie. "The weirdo who  _freaked_ the hell out after I left Mr Allen's classroom?"

Sleipnir nodded slightly.

"You have problems."

Sleipnir snorted despite himself. Jamie had no idea.

"I swear to God if you're going to keep staring at me like that-" Jamie said, striding towards him. Sleipnir tripped over his own legs and fell backwards against the wall. Jamie raised his hand and Sleipnir gasped and shut his eyes.

Nothing happened.

"Okay, what is wrong with you?" Jamie snapped and Sleipnir cracked his eyes open. Jamie was standing two feet away with his arms folded. "I wasn't  _actually_  gonna hit you, I just wanted to see what you'd do," Jamie said. Sleipnir was fairly certain that neither of them believed that. "I'm legit not that scary. For fuck's sake say something!"

"Okay..." Sleipnir ventured after a pause.

"You're useless."

"Yep."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Lesson number one in how not to look pathetic; look like you don't give a shit when someone walks into the room, people will pay less attention to you that way." Then he turned to walk into one of the stalls.

"Wait," Sleipnir said, and then wished he hadn't.

Jamie spun round. "What?"

Sleipnir's mouth formed soundless letters before he managed to get out, "How did you do it?"

"Do  _what_?"

"Say what you did to the teacher."

"It was easy. He pissed me off I told him what I think."

"And you weren't... scared... that he'd hurt you."

Jamie ran a hand through his hair and sighed in frustration. "No. The teachers can't do shit! That's the best thing about them."

"And that's really true?"

"Yeah!" Jamie was clearly exasperated. "Look, the worst thing they can do is call your parents, and then you may or may not be fucked depending on what mood they're in, but what else can they do? Detentions? Suspensions? That's nothing, man. They’re assholes but they can't do shit."

"Oh," said Sleipnir.

"Look, you've got a weird accent. Where d'you come from that teachers can make you  _that_  freaked out?"

"Uh..." Sleipnir said, thinking rapidly. Shit, where was he meant to be from? "I don't know..."

"You are as dumb as shit," Jamie declared. Sleipnir smiled weakly.

"I lived with my Grandfather. I didn't go to school," Sleipnir added, trying to be helpful.

"You've  _never_  been to school?"

Sleipnir shook his head.

"No wonder you're so fucked up. Oh my God you're gonna be so screwed here. You need help. Okay... Look. Stick with me, don't embarrass me too much, and I'll teach you how to be a normal kid. Cool?"

"Yeah," Sleipnir nodded automatically, very confused about this change of direction.

"Cool, just give me one sec, yeah?" he finished, and then disappeared into the cubicle.

Sleipnir paled as he watched the closed stall door. On the one hand, he thought he might have managed to make a friend. Jamie was a bit mean but far nicer than anyone (except his Dad) had been to him on Asgard. On the other, as Jamie had turned, Sleipnir had caught sight of a partly-healed gash on his forehead, briefly visible under the thick fringe that swished to the side. Was his new friend okay?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note 23/4/19: I promise I'll get back to this soon, I'm okay, I've just been very busy! And eeeeeeee I'm going to see Tom Hiddleston in Betrayal today! I am sooooo excited! What if I meet him at the stage door, how do I explain what a positive and profound impact he has had on my life and my confidence as a writer without coming across a complete nutter!
> 
> So, I uh, actually met Tom Hiddleston without making a fool of myself. I still can't believe it happened!!!   
> https://stardustloki.tumblr.com/post/184397515140/my-experience-meeting-tom-hiddleston-after
> 
>  
> 
> Original a/n:
> 
> Full disclosure, Jamie is based on several of the boys I went to school with, and as I went to school around London (and I can't think in an American accent) I keep on wanting to make him say things like mate or yeah bruv or wanker or wasteman. For some totally obscure reason Americans don't talk like that and so I can't write that, so it seems to me like his dialogue is stilted and doesn't flow correctly. Is this true, or is it in my head? (If it is true please give me pointers on how to improve!)
> 
> Also, is the room called the boys' restroom???? In the UK it would be the boys toilets but I know Americans don't like using the word toilet so is restroom correct in this case? Please help me with my anglicisms!
> 
> I also have no idea if someone who has asthma attacks would mistake a panic attack for an asthma attack, but I had a panic attack in church last week (fun times.) and the woman in front of me thought I was having an asthma attack and had forgotten my inhaler.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter!
> 
> Next up: Steve and Tony have an actually rational conversation!  
> Sleipnir starts to grow in confidence.
> 
> Please don't forget to subscribe if you would like to. Half the time I forget as the button is at the top of the page and then I'm like... did I read that story? Did I enjoy it? Who knows?


	6. Making Friends (And Influencing People)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleipnir starts to make friends and grow in confidence.  
> Steve and Tony have an actually rational conversation!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait. I was ill and then swamped with deadlines and now I've been decorating my room (I'm about halfway done and it looks really pretty!)
> 
> Also, I met Tom Hiddleston!!!!!!!!!! A week ago I met him at the stage door after seeing betrayal and aaaaaahhhhhhh, one of the happiest days of my life!!!!  
> https://stardustloki.tumblr.com/post/184397515140/my-experience-meeting-tom-hiddleston-after
> 
> And, I saw Endgame at midnight on Wednesday. I happen to disagree with most of tumblr and I genuinely feel that most of the movie was excellent, despite the fact that I cried for like half-an-hour because it ripped my heart out! Anyways, my best friend and I have written a short oneshot to fix a character's death. No idea whether it is coherent or not because we finished it at 5am, but here it is:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/18592033  
> DO NOT READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ENDGAME YOU WILL GET MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!
> 
> It's been a while, so what has happened so far?  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin  
> \- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative  
> \- Loki and Sleipnir talk about school and Odin and Loki convinces Sleipnir to keep trying to go to school for a bit  
> \- Tony and Loki find Captain America  
> \- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.  
> \- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|  
> \- Steve and Thor start to become friends  
> \- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him  
> \- Sleipnir kind of makes a friend? Well, one of the 'bad influence' type kids agrees to show him the ropes.
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, I think that's about it. So, as per usual, thank you all soooo much for the comments, kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions, you are all wonderful people!
> 
> 30/04/19

"Okay," Jamie said as they walked down the bustling corridor. "Rule number three: school food is gross. I swear that shit gives you food poisoning. Do you have a packed lunch? 'Cause you're gonna need one."

Sleipnir nodded and mumbled a yes, trying desperately to listen to Jamie and ignore the fact that there were far too many people, pushing and shoving, and he couldn't see them all. He felt closed in. Trapped.

Jamie sighed. "Rule number four: actually speak clear because if you're gonna have friends, they actually need to hear your voice once in a while."

"Sorry," Sleipnir said, doing his best to make his voice louder.

"Thanks, but you don't need to apologise for shit like that."

"Shit like what?"

"What? I dunno, just shit that don't matter." Jamie rolled his eyes and Sleipnir did his best not to shrink away. Disapproval had never been a good thing. Jamie wouldn't hurt him though, he reminded himself, he was helping him, he was being kind. Sleipnir determinedly ignored the fact that Jamie had almost punched him earlier. "People are gonna take advantage of you if you act so sorry for everything all the time.

"Come on," he said as he pushed the door to the heaving cafeteria open. "We're sitting over here. Hey Sam, budge up dude, we've gotta fit two of us on the end here." Jamie slid easily down onto the end of the bench and dropped his bag on the floor below. One impatient head-jerk from him later and Sleipnir sat hurriedly down next to him.

"You're the new kid, right?" the one called Sam asked.

Sleipnir nodded, before remembering what Jamie had said and adding, "yes."

"Where're you from?"

"He's from upstate," Jamie said easily and Sleipnir nodded quickly to confirm the lie. He now remembered that he was meant to have been from an isolated village in Norway (to prove it, his father had said, all he needed to do was to focus on blocking the Allspeak and say something in Asgardian), but it was nice that Jamie was covering for him as he'd said earlier that he didn't know where he was from. The only problem was that he now needed to remember that he was from 'upstate'.

"How come you moved?" Sam questioned, giving Jamie an odd look for half a second.

Sleipnir paused for a moment, then remembered he definitely did have an answer for this. "I moved in with my dad and his boyfriend. I used to live with my grandfather before he died."

"Your dad's  _gay_?" one of the boys across the table demanded incredulously. "Ugh, oh God that's so gross. Shit. I'm sorry for you, dude."

Sleipnir paled. Jarvis had warned him that not everyone would be accepting, but they thought his dad and Tony were disgusting? What was he meant to  _do_? What if they hated him? Did he want to be liked by people who hated his dad and Tony? But not being liked by people was dangerous, and...

"Hey, don't be a dick, man," Sam said. "Being gay is totally normal, my cousin's gay."

"Sorry," the boy rolled his eyes. "But it's not exactly  _natural_ is it? 'Sides, you can't talk, everything you don't like is a faggot, so don't go coming at me like that."

Sleipnir shivered. His eight-legged horse form was the very definition of unnatural. What would they do to him if they knew...

"Are you spending too much time getting off to Miss Dell in biology or what?" Jamie said coolly. "Do you even know what 'natural' means? Being gay is fucking natural, they don't just implant some tech in their brains that makes them not want to touch a boob, do they?"

"And I called everything a faggot  _before_ I found out my cousin was gay." Sam scowled.

"Look, whatever man, I'm sorry, okay," the boy said, raising his hands in mock surrender and rolling his eyes. "Jeez, you guys need to chill."

Sleipnir let out a sigh of relief, he didn't trust the boy at all, but the other two seemed okay. They had stood up for him. That was new. It felt good. This must be what having friends felt like.

"Whatever Noah," Jamie shrugged. "Just don't be a dickhead again."

"Did any of you guys get what Mr Shah was going on about for the English homework?" one of the boys from down the table asked.

"No," Jamie scoffed. "Just put that Claudio was jealous and horny and he'll eat that up."

"Thanks," the kid said sarcastically, then frowned. "Hey, did I show you guys the new phone I got for Christmas?"

"No," Noah said,"what is it? Let's see?"

"A blackberry," the kid replied, before looking around hurriedly, obviously checking for teachers, Sleipnir thought, and pulling a phone out of his bag. Sleipnir frowned, it was a small, squarish phone, with lots of little tiny keys, it didn't look  _that_ impressive, at least compared to his StarkPhone it didn't. The others, however, clearly thought otherwise.

"That's  _so_ cool!" Sam said.

"Epic," Jamie agreed.

"Nice, my parents only got me a rip-off one," Noah rolled his eyes. "Hey, what phone do you got Sleipnir?"

Sleipnir glanced around, making sure the coast was still clear, before pulling out his StarkPhone.

"Holy shit," Noah gasped.

"That must be like the newest model," the kid from down the table exclaimed. "Huh, and to think I was happy about getting a Blackberry."

"How _loaded_ is your dad?" Jamie asked incredulously.

"Uh, I'm not sure really, his boyfriend is the one with loads of money," Sleipnir admitted. "He made - uh bought - this one for me. He's really into tech." He finished with the greatest understatement of the century.

"Pffff, how are you not at some posh private school?" Sam asked.

"Tony wanted me to have a kinda normal childhood," Sleipnir shrugged, his hands twisting uncomfortably in his lap as he tried to stay calm throughout all the cross examination. "He went to private school and he said it was awful. I mean, he said it was shit." He saw Jamie give an approving nod at this correction.

"Who's Tony?"

"My dad's boyfriend."

"No wonder he got you a StarkPhone," Noah said. "If I was rich I'd get my kid a phone made by the guy with the same name as me too."

"If he's really into tech do you get to play lots of video games? How many consoles does he have?" Sam asked.

"A lot," Sleipnir replied. "He says they're not good enough and keeps pulling them apart to upgrade them, something about 3D holographic screens..." he trailed off as he noticed the weird looks the others were giving him. He bit his tongue. "Uh, I'm not very good at video games though, my one-h, uh my five-year-old sister beats me at Mario Cart, she has much more coordination than I do. I prefer reading."

"Dude," Jamie sighed. "You can't tell people that, reading is  _not_ cool."

"Oh," Sleipnir said. "Sorry?"

Jamie rolled his eyes.

"I'm not sorry?" Sleipnir squeaked, his breath starting to speed up. Jamie groaned and flopped his head down onto the table.

"Uh, do you want some of my crisps?" Sam asked, holding the packet towards him. Sleipnir wasn't sure whether he looked more concerned or weirded-out.

Sleipnir took a couple, thanking him, and trying to use the crunch of the crisps in his mouth to ground him. Next to him Jamie lamented about the task he had set himself, complete with lots of swearing and banging his head into the table.

 

 

"Hey, Steve," Tony greeted, sliding down next to him on the bench that overlooked the water. He did _not_ want to be here, but he supposed he didn't really have another choice, he needed to make up with the Cap for all of their sakes, especially Loki's. "I guess we need to talk, huh?"

"We do," Steve agreed, then sighed. "Is Loki okay?"

Tony nodded tersely, resisting the urge to say 'no thanks to you'. They had both been to blame and he knew that, rationally anyway. But that coupled with decades of resentment didn't really make him want to lash out at Steve any less. "He's fine, he's crashing a bit now, so he's on the sofa wrapped in blankets, drinking hot cocoa and watching Harry Potter, he'll be okay."

"Harry Potter?"

"It's uh, a movie, and a book. I'll show it to you at some point. It's kinda iconic."

Steve laughed bitterly. "There's so many things I've missed out on. I'm starting to think I should make a list."

"That's not a bad idea."

The next few moments passed in an awkward silence.

"Look, Tony," Steve began. "I don't want to get mad at you, and I'm really grateful you and Loki pulled me out of the ice. But, I miss my friends, you've gotta let me mourn their losses, to say goodbye. If I can't do that then I don't know if I can move on, and in that case it would probably have been better if you'd left me in the ice."

Tony sighed. "I get that. I do, I'm just scared about you falling into the wrong hands, I don't want you becoming someone's personal super-soldier, or worse, their personal lab rat."

"That's the thing, Tony, I don't think I would. If I'm meant to be dead, people won't be looking for me, they won't think anything of a tall guy that looks kind of like Steve Rogers going to visit a few graves." He grimaced. "And my point from earlier still stands, if you don't trust this Shield thing, why are you working for it?"

"Because they have ressources that I need. And they are the 'good guys', I suppose, they're better than most super-secret organisations. They care about the world, but they also don't care much about the means as long as it gets them the end they want. So, I trust them, a bit, but not completely. And Cap, it's not just them you need to worry about, there'll be other people too. People are obsessed with recreating the super-soldier serum. Just ask Bruce, he's my science bro, he was there at dinner the other night, he tried to recreate it, it didn't work, and sometimes he turns into a giant green rage monster." Steve was staring at him. "Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there, I know."

"I don't know if I want to know what you're on about."

"Probably not, too much, too soon."

"Tony, I don't care who's out there, they can't be worse than Hydra, and no one's gonna think anything of me."

"I dunno, someone who looks suspiciously like Steve Rogers going round and visiting all the Howling Commandos graves and gawping at all the new tech and stuff seems a bit suspicious. But you're probably right. Just, at least let us get you familiarised with modern tech first so you don't draw attention to yourself, and let Loki glamour you so you look a bit different."

"Okay," Steve said, nodding slowly, and Tony breathed an internal sigh of relief. "I guess that's okay. And Tony, I'm sorry for getting mad earlier. I guess, everything's so new, and it's like I have nothing left of the past, and when you didn't want me to leave I felt trapped here."

"Apology accepted," Tony said, rolling his eyes. "And for the record, I'm sorry too, I could probably have handled that better."

"Apology accepted," Steve smiled, and Tony chuckled.

This wasn't at all what he had expected meeting Captain America to be like. As a young child, he had idolised the Captain, he had had dreams of going on adventures with him and fighting Hydra. Jarvis had had a folder of all the drawings Tony had made of their imagined escapades before Tony had burned it in a fit of rage at ten years old. Idolising Captain America had only made Tony vulnerable, and Howard had known this. Some of his earliest memories had been of Howard shouting at him about how worthless Steve would think he was, how disappointed Steve would have been with him, how Steve was a super-soldier who had given his life for his country, he had seen war, and would care nothing for the snivellings of a boy who had only just learned to solder. What was Tony crying for? If Steve were here he would have given the child something to really cry about.

One thing had been for certain, any failure had meant letting Captain America down. So, eventually it had become easier to react against his childhood hero, to reject the Captain as Howard had said the Captain would reject him.

But Steve had actually  _apologised_ to him. Something Howard had made clear Steve would never, ever do, because Steve was always in the right, and Tony could never be. And they had had a rational conversation. And okay they had argued earlier but Steve had never self-righteously declared how stupid and worthless Tony was, so that was a start. So, perhaps Howard had been wrong about his long-lost friend, perhaps Tony and Steve could get along. Maybe they could even be friends in a way five-year-old Tony could have only dreamed of.

Yes, they would be.

Fuck you Howard.

Operation befriend Steve was a go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that!
> 
> Next up: Frigga and Darcy despair at Asgardian nobles and politics, and Darcy makes use of her taser.  
> Our first glimpse of the Winter Soldier.  
> The team try to introduce Cap to technology and the outside world.
> 
> Repetition from the beginning author's note because I'm hyped:  
> I met Tom Hiddleston!!!! https://stardustloki.tumblr.com/post/184397515140/my-experience-meeting-tom-hiddleston-after  
> And my best friend and I wrote a (VERY SPOILERY) fix-it for a certain character's death in Endgame: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18592033
> 
> Please don't forget to subscribe if you would like to, I frequently forget because the button is at the top of the page!


	7. The Asset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frigga and Darcy despair at Asgardian nobles and politics.  
> Our first glimpse of the Winter Soldier.  
> The team try to introduce Cap to technology and the outside world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooo, only 2 weeks from my last update!
> 
> In the last fic, it was established in a throwaway line that Baldr is Odin's illegitimate son.  
> In the myths, Baldr gets hit with a dart of mistletoe and dies.  
> In the last fic, when Frigga (and Thor) were ruling during the Odinsleep they decided to distribute apprenticeship funding more fairly between swordsmiths and farmers.
> 
> There is an illusion to very unsuccessful attempted rape in the first section of the chapter. It's not in any way explicit, but if it bothers you, skip to the Hydra section after the Asgardian nobles talk about Darcy having armed her handmaidens.
> 
> Reminder: summary of the first fic in ch1  
> What has happened so far in this fic?  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Except for Darcy, who's acting as an ambassador and political adviser on Asgard  
> \- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative  
> \- Tony and Loki find Captain America  
> \- Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.  
> \- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|  
> \- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him  
> \- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard  
> \- Also, much Sleipnir angst
> 
> I apologise in advance, I am very cruel to Bucky in this chapter :(
> 
> Thank you all so much for all the comments, kudos, bookmarks and subscriptions you wonderful, beautiful people!!
> 
> 14/05/19

Frigga sighed as she looked around at the Council. After the last session she had thought that she had made progress, but it appeared that last night money had changed hands, and Tyr had had some quiet words with some of the on-the-fence lords, and the balance was no longer in her favour.

Darcy sat on an ornate chair beside her, typing furiously onto the laptop Tony had made for her. At first, many Asgardians had been insistent that she use a quill and ink as they did, but Darcy had put her foot down. She could think better with all her notes in one place, she was faster at ‘typing’ and she was a Midgardian and she was going to use Midgardian technology thank you very much. Darcy had managed to be brilliant and, after showing several of the more liberal Councillors what the computer could do, she had impressed them. At least some of them now thought that Midgardians were more intelligent than goats and were interested in trading with them.

Others, well, they still needed to be persuaded.

She wished that she could do just as she pleased, but an overhaul of the political system required less outright hatred from powerful citizens. Besides, it would be ironic if she were to implement democracy by being an absolute monarch. The realm wouldn't know who to trust and it would descend into chaos.

"Why _should_ we give the peasants a say in how this realm is run? It will be in even more ruin before long. Commoners have no idea of the proper manner of governing." Baldr stated, glaring at Frigga.

Frigga sighed. Once, Baldr would have been amenable, would have looked down with kindness of those of a lower status, but it seemed that after suffering a near fatal anaphylactic shock due to his mistletoe allergy (which, Frigga had recently discovered, Odin had erroneously blamed on Loki), his temperament was rigid, callous and uncaring.

It didn't help that Baldr knew that he was Odin's illegitimate son and thought that due to the regicide of Odin, and Thor and Loki's renunciation of the Throne, he was deserving of becoming the next Allfather. Frigga was  _not_ going to allow that to happen.

"Well then, it seems that we will just have to educate them on the 'proper manner of governing'," Frigga said calmly. She wouldn't 'lose her shit' (something that Darcy regularly threatened to do), just yet. "There are hundreds of millions of the lower classes living here who should have some say in how the realm is governed."

"Their lack of class represents their lack of suitability. We were born into our power, it was granted to us by the Norns." Frigga was sorely tempted to roll her eyes at this. "How-"

"Since the farmers were granted more aid for apprenticeships at their request six months ago, the quality and quantity of Asgard's food has vastly increased," Darcy said. "Letting the lower classes have a say on what's important could help Asgard's economy. The Norns have-"

"Do not interrupt your betters, mortal." Leiknir, one of Odin's staunch supporters, was clearly incensed. Frigga was eagerly awaiting the time she could prove that at least one of the assassins had been sent by him. She'd had almost 3000 years practice and she would say that she was a largely patient person, but her tolerance levels were vastly diminishing.

"As I have said previously, Darcy may cut in whenever she wishes," Frigga said icily. "If you are so concerned about preserving hierarchy, then you would do well to listen to my orders and allow us to implement some democracy."

"She may be your 'assistant', but she is not of this realm." Tyr said. "You ask us to trust in the logic of a mortal girl so wise she would grant crude mortal weapons to her handmaidens! It is improper and a demonstration of her severe lack of culture."

"What!" Baldr exclaimed. "This is yet another example of what I have been fearing, you intend to completely destroy Asgard's power and traditions! How do we know that you are not arming them and the rest of the lower classes to rise up against us as you did Odin? You claim you are unsafe, you claim there have been attempts made on your lives, but you make no effort to keep _us_ safe. You would happily see us destroyed."

"Have you murdered the Allmother's daughter, abused her son, her grandchildren, started unjust wars?" Darcy asked. "You might be an asshole but I don't think we'll bother to have them rise up against you, thanks."

Frigga winced, she loved Darcy as a daughter, but sometimes she feared the Midgardian was too blunt for Asgard's style of politics.

"The fact remains that you have armed your handmaidens."

"Yeah? And? I think they should be able to help defend Frigga and I from assassins and be able to taze your drunken soldiers who want to take their 'honour'."

"It's a cowardly way to defend oneself," Tyr stated.

"Oh, because it's not cowardly for a totally ripped soldier to try to take what he wants out of a seemingly defenseless woman."

"Well." Frigga was pleased to see Tyr looking awkward. "Everyone knows..."

"Dude, if you're going to give me some bullshit answer about that being the way of things I'm gonna lose my shit," Darcy stated, and Frigga found herself torn between calling the meeting to order or seeing how this would turn out. "Arna tazing a guy who would happily have done what he liked to her is super reasonable."

"Your mortal weapon is disrespectful, it imitates Mjolnir," Leiknir challenged.

Frigga decided to break for lunch.

 

Secretary Pierce sighed and drummed his fingers on the handrail of the metal walkway. Work on the helicarriers had practically ground to a halt over the last few months and there were now only a few dozen people working on them below him. Since that bastard Loki had turned up and seduced Stark and the World Security Council with promises of intergalactic trade and knowledge beyond their wildest dreams, the funding to his project had been cut and cut again, and many of his engineers had been pulled away to work on the Einstein-Rosen Bridge site.

Of course, Hydra did have a large amount of influence inside SHIELD, it _was_ SHIELD, to an extent, but there were only so many people you could cling onto and so many people you could sweet-talk before Fury, the World Security Council and other important and  _true_ SHIELD members would get suspicious.

To make things worse, previously loyal Hydra agents were now questioning the point of Project Insight and were asking if it would not be better to go ahead with the Jotunheim-Asgard-Midgard (coined the JAM agreement by the insufferable Darcy Lewis, who was now swanning around as an ambassador on Asgard as if she had any right to be there). Hydra would never be able to control the human race for its own good if the agreement went ahead, the aliens might get testy.

He had Zola's algorithm, but no way to implement it as of yet, and with the E-R Bridge due to be made public news in just over a month's time he would need to act quickly, and think of a way to eliminate the major powers and players in this agreement. If Hydra eventually formed an alliance with the other realms it was going to be on Hydra's terms.

He sighed again and opened up an encrypted line.

"Strucker? Wake the Asset and prep it. I expect it ready for my arrival in 12 hours."

 

When Pierce reached the locked room in which the Asset was kept, 12 storeys under an acre of seemingly abandoned warehouses, he smiled grimly.

The blood decorating one of the concrete walls suggested it had not been in a good mood after being defrosted. The spasms and twitching of the Asset's muscles as it knelt on the hard floor in the middle of the room suggested it had quickly been taught its place again.

"How many?" Pierce asked Rumlow, who was holding a high-voltage baton near the Asset's unprotected flesh arm. The Asset seemed not to notice this, its blank stare looked into the distance somewhere behind Pierce's knees.

"One technician dead, two injured."

Ignoring the concerned 'Sir' from Rumlow, Pierce strode forwards and grabbed the Asset by its chin, forcing it to look into his eyes. Its eyes betrayed a momentary flicker of terror before they returned to their usual blank and complacent state. It had been a fraction of a second but it wasn't good enough. The Asset didn't have a right to fear its handlers, it would take what they did to it and it would accept it.

"Do you think you need reprogramming, Asset?" Pierce asked softly.

He could see the cogs turning in the Asset's mind. Oh, he would definitely be reprogrammed, anything other than blank acceptance was intolerable.

"No, Sir," the Asset rasped eventually, almost too quietly for Pierce to hear.

"No!?" Pierce rewarded the Asset with a backhand that sent it tumbling to the floor. "You have no preference, you are our machine, Hydra's to do with as we please. You will be reprogrammed and you will be grateful for being made into a more effective weapon for Hydra to use to shape the world."

"Yes, Sir," the Asset agreed from where it lay sprawled on the floor. At least it hadn't tried to defend itself or move from where it had fallen. That showed it wouldn't need to be seriously reprogrammed.

Pierce sighed and held out a hand to Rumlow, who placed the electric baton into his palm. Grimly, he pressed the baton down onto the Asset's bare stomach, watching with a certain amount of satisfaction as it writhed silently on the floor, its metal arm sparking slightly and doubtlessly only adding to the pain the Asset felt.

It didn't dare to scream, not that it would remember why it wouldn't, but Pierce's predecessors at Hydra had made sure it wouldn't allow itself to do so.

Pierce wasn't sure about this. It was no doubt useful for stealth on missions, but it seemed a shame that the only time he could hear the Asset's screams was when it was being wiped.

Still, having nigh on complete control over the former Bucky Barnes, the late, great Captain America's best friend, did give him a certain rush of power.

 

 

 

It was Sunday afternoon and the residents of 10880 Malibu Point were enthusiastically crowded around Steve who was about to have his first go on a cellphone, a look of expectation on all of their faces. Steve couldn't help but feel like a zoo animal and kind of pressured to get this right.

"Have a go, Cap," Tony was saying excitedly, handing the shiny phone over. "I've set it to 'accessibility mode' so even an old man like you shouldn't have any trouble."

"Are you saying I might have trouble using a device that Loki's kids have no issues with?" Steve shot back, trying to ignore the fact that a quick glance down at the phone as Tony had handed it to him had shown him that he had no idea what any of the bright buttons on the 'touch-screen' did.

"Well, if you can figure out how to text me in the next ten minutes I'll deactivate the training wheels." Tony shrugged, leaning back against Loki and smirking.

"Oh, it's on," Steve said, narrowing his eyes. There was silence for ten seconds, then, "What _is_  'text', exactly? Am I... sending you a telegram?"

 

"Right, Steve," Jormungandr said seriously, "this is a toaster." Steve resisted sighing, he knew what a toaster was... even if this one did seem very fancy. "And these, are poptarts. You  _have_ to take the poptart out of the packaging  _before_ you put it in the toaster, otherwise you will set fire to things like Uncle Thor did." Steve glanced at Thor, who looked slightly embarrassed.

Five minutes later, Steve had to admit that Thor was right, poptarts tasted very good.

 

"This is  _music_?" Steve exclaimed, horrified, as he tore the earbuds from his ears. Everything else had seemed much more advanced in the future, why was music so _bad_! "What is it?"

"Skrillex," Sleipnir replied. "Don't you like it? We could try ACDC?"

 

"These are  _cars_!" Steve rushed down the lab stairs and hurried to inspect the bright red convertible. "They're incredible! Do they fly? Please tell me Howard figured out how to make them fly."

"He didn't actually," Tony said, and Steve's heart fell, remembering the Stark Expo and how amazing Howard's almost flying car had seemed. "We could make it fly together, if you want," Tony suggested casually, and Steve swung round to face him. He was well aware that the only thing he would be useful for in this project was the heaving lifting, but, getting to work on an invention with a Stark? Completing Howard's work? Maybe finding some more about Howard in the process? Becoming Tony's friend? Count him in.

"Yeah, I would really like that," Steve said, smiling as Tony's face lit up into a grin.

"Cool, we'll just introduce you to the internet and then we can get started!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope you guys all enjoyed that!
> 
> Next up: Sleipnir tries to be more assertive.  
> Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane finish the E-R Bridge  
> Tony takes Steve to visit Peggy.


	8. The Completion of the E-R Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleipnir tries to be more assertive and gets into trouble.  
> Loki, Bruce, Erik and Jane finish the E-R Bridge - AT LAST!! A section from Loki's POV, I have missed writing from his perspective soooo much!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been ages again. I've been super busy, but busy with good things for a change :)  
> On the plus side, this WILL be getting regular (hopefully weekly) updates again. I'm using the summer holidays and my time off uni to focus on becoming a published author, and a part of that will be working on this, because this has obviously been developing my skills as an author.
> 
> So, what has happened so far?  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin  
> \- Tony, Loki etc. are building an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Secretary Pierce, the World Security Council and Fury want its plans. Tony is uncooperative  
> \- Tony and Loki find Captain America  
> \- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|  
> \- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him  
> \- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard  
> \- Sleipnir kind of makes friends? Well, the 'bad influence' type kids. Honestly, they are all dumbass 13-14 year olds.  
> \- The Winter Soldier is woken up
> 
> Thank you all for continuing to support this fic and not giving up on it due to my crappy update schedule, it means a lot!
> 
> 12/07/19

A couple of weeks later found Sleipnir with Jamie and Sam in the middle of a maths lesson, laughing about something stupid Sam's little brother had done.

"I know  _exactly_ what you mean!" Sleipnir grinned, rolling his eyes. "Just yesterday-"

"Okay class, could I have quiet please?" Mr Allen called. Sleipnir ignored him determinedly, the others didn't always shut up when he asked them to. Besides, he had a story to tell. He was gonna be like Jamie, he wasn't gonna be scared of teachers, he wasn't gonna let Odin ruin his life.

"-Jormungandr decided he was gonna make a cake _all by himself_."

"If everyone's quite finished..."

"I swear to the N.... to God that my dad nearly had a heart-"

"Sleipnir, you can have your own conversations at lunch, right now we're meant to be focusing on Math."

Sleipnir immediately shut up, biting his lip and staring back at Mr Allen, who was undeniably irritated. Oh no. No. He could  _not_ do this, disappointing an Authority Figure brought back too many memories. He nodded and dug his fingernails into his leg to try to steady his breathing.

"Why d'you have to pick on him for?" Jamie demanded beside him. Sleipnir felt his face drain of colour. Jamie was always so angry, always raring for a fight with anybody, Sleipnir wished that he would shut up. "Everyone else was talking, that's not fair. I-"

"Jamie, I don't think this calls for your input."

"I think-" Jamie said, before cutting off abruptly when Sleipnir elbowed him. To his surprise, Jamie glanced at him and shut up.

The last fifteen minutes of the lesson passed in a haze of anxiety, Sleipnir wasn't even sure what they were learning about or what the basic sums he was doing were.

At the end of the lesson Mr Allen called Sleipnir back.

Almost certain that he would faint or at the very least fall over, Sleipnir waited for everyone to leave, doing his best to channel Jamie's energy and stay in control.

 

Mr Allen sighed as the last student left the classroom and the door shut behind them.

What was he even meant to say?

"Sleipnir, you're not here because I want to tell you off." That wasn't a bad start, he supposed, but the kid was looking at him incredulously, sitting tense behind his desk, clutching his math book in front of him like a shield.

He grimaced and hoisted himself up onto one of the nearby desks. "I'm just, concerned about you, I suppose. You're a good kid Sleipnir. And you know, in the grand scheme of things talking over me in class isn't a big thing, don't tell anyone I said this but it's good to see you being more confident, behaving like a normal kid."

Sleipnir didn't look any less tense than when the conversation had started.

"It's just, it's very clear that you're uncomfortable starting a new school and you have some very big anxiety issues. And I think that that makes you... very vulnerable to the manipulations of... certain people."

Sleipnir's eyes narrowed and God knew that Mr Allen had rarely felt more uncomfortable.

"I just think that maybe Jamie and some of the others could be having a bad influence on you."

Sleipnir's eyes blazed and he opened his mouth, obviously to refute that statement, before shutting it again, drawing into himself even more. Mr Allen cursed himself, of course Sleipnir wouldn't see them as a damaging influence, not with how lonely he'd been.

"It's clear you disagree with me, but-"

"No!" Sleipnir nearly yelled and Mr Allen startled. "I mean... I..." he spluttered.

Mr Allen attempted a comforting smile. "It's okay, you're allowed to disagree with me-" Sleipnir looked like he had just told him that the Earth was flat- "I am just asking you to be careful, if you feel like they're being mean, or manipulating you, or making you upset or uncomfortable, I want you to feel like you can find some new friends or speak to a member of staff. I'm worried about you."

"They're the _only_ people who have been a bit kind to me, the _only_ ones who don't make fun of me that much, the _only_ ones that make this all make a  _bit_ of sense!" Sleipnir blurted out, defiance and terror painted clearly across his face.

Mr Allen sighed. Of course Sleipnir felt that way. He just hoped that the kid would be able to get away from them before Jamie and his friends messed the kid up too badly.

 

Sleipnir practically fled the classroom as soon as he was allowed to. Mr Allen seemed to be trying to be nice, but he was telling him to be wary of his friends, so what was he meant to make of that? Was he meant to stop being friends with them? Well. He wasn't going to. These were the first friends he'd had in half a millennium (excluding people like Tony, because they were more like family anyway) and nothing was going to change that.

"Hey," Sam called from about halfway down the corridor. "You okay?"

"He said..." Sleipnir started, then froze up. Could he let Sam know what had happened? Would Sam be angry with him? Would he be upset?

"Yeah, I know what he said," Sam said, patting him lightly on the shoulder, Sleipnir managed to only flinch slightly. "Jamie heard what he said too and he punched the wall and stormed off in a rage. I think he might have left the grounds."

"What!?"

"Honestly, I dunno what he was so pissed off about, he does his best to be a 'bad influence' or whatever and we all know he has issues."

"Is he going to be mad at me?" Sleipnir asked quietly.

"No, he's pissed at Mr Allen, that's all," Sam replied. "'Sides, if he does get mad at you I'll show him."

"Really?" Sleipnir almost laughed, his eyebrows raised as far as they could go.

"Well... probably not. You don't want to get into a fight with Jamie, he is lethal, man. He's scary. Look, cheer up. Let's go to the cafeteria, we can try out some of the awesome games your phone has again."

Sleipnir gave a half smile and followed him to the cafeteria, his heart still pounding in his chest.

 

 

Loki grinned as he looked around at Erik, Jane and Bruce.

"We've done it! We've actually done it!"

"I know!" Bruce breathed. "And to think I thought you were all mad when Tony contacted me."

"Those assholes at college can stick it!" Jane all but shrieked. "Because look what we have here, a working Einstein-Rosen bridge, that just sent a bagel to and from Asgard without opening up a black hole! Suck it bitches!"

"I still think we should have done more tests," Erik muttered, but Loki could see him beaming ecstatically so he just rolled his eyes fondly. "And we couldn't have done it without you and your magic, son." Erik added, and Loki found himself suddenly engulfed in a hug.

He felt like almost crying with happiness. Look how far he'd come, look how far they'd all come. Less than a year ago Erik had all but hated him, and now look at them. And here he had people who cared about him, who knew him, even the parts of him he'd thought (and sometimes still did think) monstrous. Sometimes he found this hard to believe, sometimes he thought that the Norns were just playing an elaborate joke on him and the rug was about to be pulled out from under him and he'd fall into an abyss where he was (rightfully) hated again. But now, now he could believe it. Because he was laughing, and his friends were laughing, and they'd just accomplished the impossible.

He grinned at Bruce, who actually seemed to be crying he was so delighted with their success and knew how he felt. Only half a year ago Bruce had been hiding in Calcutta, afraid of himself, afraid of everything he could do, and people had been hunting him down with such  _hatred_. People had thought he was a monster too. But now, here he was, he was with people who accepted him (even, in the case of Tony, tried to get him to let the 'Other Guy' loose), and he was a part of the first team on Earth to crack deep space travel. They had both found a family here.

 

"So," Fury said seriously. "I've been told that your trial run was a success."

"Yes it was!" Jane gushed. "We didn't even cause a small inter-dimensional rupture!"

"That we know of," Loki added, being unable to resist seeing Fury's reaction. The other three glared at him. Once people being mock-angry about him would have terrified him. But it didn't now, at least, it didn't where these three were involved.

"Right," Fury said drily. "Where's Stark, I'd have thought his ego wouldn't resist being here for such a monumentous event."

"He's ill," Loki said quickly. Fury could not know that Tony was obsessing over teaching Steve everything important that had happened over the last seventy years just to stick it to Howard, and also, Loki knew, because Tony actually liked Steve.

"Right," Fury said, who'd clearly heard about the time Tony had come into work with pneumonia and had managed to crack the problem that had been bugging them for three weeks before passing out in a haze of delirium and forcibly-administered medication. "If I find out he's caused a diplomatic incident doing whatever the hell he's doing today, it's your asses on the line."

The four of them looked at each other and shrugged.

 

 

Secretary Pierce ended his video call with Fury and smiled.

So, SHIELD's new lapdogs had finally cracked the secret to a working E-R Bridge.

It seemed that Hydra needed to put their plans into action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Steve (and Tony and Loki) go to visit Peggy. Steve finds out about her Alzheimer's.  
> Loki goes to visit Laufey and they have a heart to heart.  
> Meanwhile, Steve and Tony argue about what kind of person Howard was.
> 
> It would be great if you guys could leave a comment, just to let me know you're still interested and reading this, because I do worry that loads of people will have given up on this because I've left it so long. I'm turning 20 on Sunday (I am soo weirded out by no longer being a teenager! But actually, really excited too!) so just think of it as a birthday present :)


	9. Perceptions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve goes to visit Peggy with some help from Tony and Loki.  
> Loki goes to visit Laufey, partly to learn to control his frost giant powers, and they end up having a pretty angsty and deep conversation. Laufey is a Good Dad :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What, is this me? Back with a chapter just over a week later? You're damn right it is!  
> This is probably one of my better written chapters, so I'm pretty proud of it.
> 
> Warning: a few brief allusions to rape in the Loki and Laufey centric part. Angrboda was not a very nice person in the last fic.
> 
> In the last fic, a number of Asgardians, including an OC named Alfar, defected and joined the side of Jotunheim when Odin came to attack Jotunheim near the end of the last fic. 
> 
> What's happened so far?  
> \- Everyone's living in Malibu together  
> \- Tony and Loki find Captain America  
> \- Steve wakes up in the 21st century, he comes downstairs to find a) a room full of people (some of which are blue) b) that most of his friends are dead. Fun times! :|  
> \- Steve and Tony have an argument because Steve wants to visit his friends' graves and Tony is worried about SHIELD finding him  
> \- They make up and Tony decides to befriend Steve to spite Howard  
> \- Secretary Pierce is unhappy about the Einstein-Rosen bridge being built so the Winter Soldier is woken up  
> \- The ER Bridge is completed  
> \- (Also, stuff about Sleipnir starting school)
> 
> Once again, a big thank you to all my readers, commenters, kudoers, bookmarkers and subscribers, you guys are all amazing!
> 
> 21/07/19

Steve smiled weakly as he closed the back door of the unfortunately-earthbound car. He had admired it earlier, with its sleek black design and strange tinted windows in which you could see your reflection. It was very impressive, and he could certainly be happy about that.

He had decided that he was going to be excited about all this new technology, for Bucky's sake. It could be frustrating and confusing, but whenever he felt like hiding away and giving up he felt he could picture Bucky up in heaven shouting at him because Steve was  _alive_  with all this goddamn tech from the  _future_ and if Bucky couldn't admire it and make use of it, Steve had better do so. He liked to think that Bucky's spirit would be proud of him.

He barely noticed the car now, it was just a minor detail in the swirl of new information to take in that was Washington DC. Besides, he had more important things to think about, like the fact that he was going to be seeing Peggy and finally get to talk to someone that he had known in the past. Tony and everyone else were great, but they just didn't get it, they hadn't been through what he had. At least with Peggy he'd have someone he could really connect to.

The fact that she would now be eighty-nine years old was troubling him. He tried to imagine Peggy with grey hair and wrinkles and the idea seemed laughable. To him, Peggy could only be the intimidating and indomitable woman that he'd known, the one with fire in her eyes who would never allow anything to stop her, not even the sexism (a new word that Thor had taught him) of the 1940s. Rationally, he knew he would be in for a shock, but he didn't want to face up to that, not yet. Especially as Tony had told him that her condition would be bad. Steve wasn't sure how he was going to deal with seeing her in her current condition, but he knew he would deal with it. He was a fighter, he never gave up, not even as a skinny asthmatic would he have given up. Whatever he felt at Peggy's condition he would face it head on and he would overcome it. He had fought Nazis, how hard could this be?

He turned back and gave a quick wave to Tony and Loki who were glamoured and sitting in the front seat of the car, concentrating on various screens, before walking up the steps to the nursing home and pulling open the doors.

The inside felt rather drear compared to the glass and brightness of the Malibu mansion, but Steve felt calmed by once again being inside an old-fashioned brick building. This, at least, was more familiar.

"Oh. Mr Stark!" The man behind the counter stared at him, or, at least, the illusion of Tony that Loki had placed on him, in surprise. "We were hoping to see you here again, you haven't come to visit in a while and we wondered um..." he trailed off awkwardly and the whispering coming from the earpiece helped to elucidate the situation for Steve. "That is, Peggy misses you and..."

"Yeah, yeah you'll get your funding," Steve said stiffly, trying to appear relaxed and forcing himself to remember that this was how rich people talked to others, offhand and dismissively. Or at least they did in public, the Tony he'd gotten to know seemed much nicer than that, and Steve was glad of it.

"Thanks," the secretary said, looking at him oddly.

"You're welcome," Steve said automatically. He heard Tony sigh in his ear. "Well. I'll just be off to visit her then." He turned quickly and started his way along the corridor to the right.

"Hey, um, Mr Stark." The secretary grimaced. "Are you sure you're alright? I mean, you just walked the wrong way to Peggy's room and your voice, or your accent is off or something, and you seem a bit... nervous? Sorry to ask, Mr Stark, but have you been on drugs again?"

"Drugs?" Steve demanded, appalled, ignoring Tony's insistent chattering in his ear. "Tony wo... _I_ would  _never_ do drugs."

"Mr Stark, I'm afraid I can't let you put one of our residents at risk. I'm going to have to ask you..."

"No wait!" Steve interrupted, he couldn't give up now, not when Peggy was so close. Tony was rich right, and if Tony was telling the truth this establishment really cared about getting funding. "What if I gave you an extra..." what would be a lot of money? "40 dollars."

The secretary stared at him, unimpressed. "Mr Stark, you're a billionaire."

"Fine, you can have -  _a million dollars_? Yes, one million, you can have that."

The man looked torn and in last ditch attempt Steve leaned forwards and whispered. "Listen, this is a matter of national security, I need to know what happened in Vienna in 1944, Peggy is the last living person who can give me information about that." He thought quickly. "Yes. I have been drugged. And I need this information to help me find the cure."

The secretary sighed. "Fine, yes, you can go up, but I'm warning you..."

"Everything will be fine," Steve promised, before adding on the prompt of Tony. "You'll see your million in your bank account by Monday!"

He headed off in the right direction this time, guided by the earpiece. When he was climbing a staircase, safely out of hearing range he whispered:

"You take  _drugs_?"

"Steve, I _took_ d..."

"What would Howard say?"

"It was  _his_ fault I got addicted in the first place." Tony snapped back, making Steve's earpiece crackle. Steve's stomach turned to ice. No, that couldn't be true. Tony was lying. He couldn't believe he'd say something like that about his own father.

"Bullshit," he hissed. It seemed like the only word that properly expressed his feelings on the situation.

"Steve," Tony snapped. "Can you just get on and find Peggy's room so I can disable the electronic surveillance SHIELD and the US government have put on her and Loki can drop the glamour. Because it's very difficult holding an illusion onto someone you can only see through security cameras, and I swear, if my boyfriend faints because of you, I'm gonna lose my shit."

"Fine," Steve said, and, somewhat childishly he knew, disabled the earpiece. It wasn't like Tony couldn't turn it on again if he needed to, he consoled himself.

 

 

Steve knocked softly at the door to Peggy's room and felt the prickling feeling on his skin dissolve as he did so. So, Loki had let the illusion fall and he looked like himself again, that must mean that Tony had disabled the nearby tech.

"Come in," a voice called, it was wavery and had changed slightly in pitch. If Steve hadn't known it was Peggy speaking, perhaps he wouldn't have realised that it was her.

Steve opened the door and closed it softly behind him, only turning round to look at Peggy properly once he had done so. She was grey, and lined, and her skin sagged around her face and bluish veins decorated her arms. But it was Peggy.  _His_ Peggy. He could see it in her eyes. She squinted it him, her eyes widening in recognition, and she gasped.

"Steve," she whispered. "They told me you were dead. You were lost, I heard your last words before the plane hit the ice."

"Yeah," Steve said, smiling weakly and trying not to cry. "Well, I couldn't die and leave my best girl without her dance now could I?" Internally, he grimaced, and he could hear Bucky taunting him for how corny that sounded.

"Oh Steve," she said softly, "I can't, I'm married n... oh no, no I'm not anymore am I, he died, didn't he..."

Steve surged forwards and clutched her hand, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles in an attempt at comfort. He'd known Peggy was bad, Tony had warned him. But seeing her, like this, it was almost too much. His heart screamed for her re-remembrance of the loss of her husband and the slow decline of her once sharp mind. He wondered if she'd end up like the old woman who'd lived two floors above him, whose mind had slowly declined until she sometimes screamed because she didn't know where she was, and she always repeated the same stories about the Irish potato famine. Not that Peggy would find much interest in potatoes.

"Yes, yes. I'll show you him." A shaky hand picked up a photo-frame and she gestured to the balding man who was seated beside her in the picture. "You saved his life, did you know that?"

"No, I didn't," Steve said. "But I'm glad I did, I'm glad you found someone to share your life with." He was surprised to find that he meant it, he wanted Peggy to be happy, even if a small twinge of jealously for all he had lost slithered around in the back of his mind. Everyone had been supposed to lose him, they had been supposed to move on with their lives. Steve hadn't expected to wake up years later and to have to deal with the consequences of that. Everyone had been supposed to lose him, he hadn't been supposed to lose everyone else.

"Look," Peggy said, pointing to a blonde haired teenage girl in the corner of the frame, one grinning face from the twenty or so that seemed to include Peggy's extended family in this picture. "This is Sharon, I'm not supposed to tell anyone outside of SHIELD this, but seeing as it's you... how  _do_ I know it's you though, you've come here on your own, no one told me about you, what have you come here to do?"

"No, Peggy, it's me, it's me, I promise," Steve almost begged. "Tony Stark found me, but he didn't tell anyone because he wanted me to stay out of the way of people who just want to use me for my serum. And, I think I like staying out of the way too. It's nice not to have to kill people, it's nice not to have to see your friends dying beside you." At this point he successfully pushed the image of Bucky falling from a train out of him mind. "What would you like me to do to prove that it's me, I'll tell you anything!"

Peggy shook her head. "Everything's so hazy nowadays, I don't know what to ask." She sighed. "I suppose I'll just have to not reveal any state secrets. Dance with me?"

"What?" Steve asked, surprised.

"Dance with me, then I'll know it's really you. Well, I might do," she smiled, "but at least we'll have had our dance."

"Okay," Steve said, and helped her gently out of bed. "Is this alright?"

She smiled, and he held her in his arms and whirled her slowly around the room, softly humming one of Peggy's favourite songs from before the war.

 

 

"How did it go?" Loki asked as Steve slid into the backseat of the car.

"Yeah, it went well," Steve smiled. "It was really nice actually."

"You were there for a while," Tony said tersely and Steve bristled.

"Don't start," Loki warned both of them. "You can talk out your issues later, when I'm on Jotunheim, and I don't have to hear you two. I can't deal with this right now."

He took a deep breath and gestured to Tony to start the car. They would have to drive a few miles to drop it off at the car hire centre before Loki could teleport them back to Malibu. Still, despite the tense atmosphere and the fact that his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, Loki allowed himself a small smile. He had managed to be assertive again in a situation that made him uncomfortable. That was definite progress.

 

When they arrived in the living room of the mansion Loki's eyes widened.

Sleipnir was in the middle of the room, tottering about in his horse form and giving his three siblings a ride on his back.

Now  _this_ was progress. 

Up until very recently Sleipnir had been afraid to turn into a horse for fear that he would find himself trapped again and unable to turn back. But here he was, seemingly having the time of his life and letting his siblings ride on him. A part of Loki had thought Sleipnir would never let anyone do that again, and small blame to him. The times when Odin had ridden the horse had often been painful and had sometimes involved going into battle. Sleipnir was his own person and well within his rights to never allow anyone to do that again.

The twins slipped off Sleipnir's back and ran forwards to wrap their arms around Loki.

"We are three brave adventurers who have been exploring the ancient forests and looking for dinosaurs with the help of our magical steed!" Fenrir explained.

"Well that sounds very exciting!"

Sleipnir changed back into his human form and walked over to give Loki a hug. Loki could almost feel his eyes welling up with tears. "I am so, so proud of you, you know that, don't you?" he asked, placing a kiss on the top of Sleipnir's head.

Sleipnir shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I do."

Loki snorted, his son was becoming more like a Midgardian teenager with each passing day.

 

 

Loki stared at the jagged ice blade on his arm. 

It wasn't perfect, in fact, it might shatter if he applied the slightest pressure to it. But it was there, and if he looked at it from the right angle, maybe, it was just a bit beautiful.

"Well done," Laufey said as Loki melted the blade, allowing the water droplets to drip down onto the snow.

"Thanks," Loki replied, watching the puddle of cool water quickly reform back into ice due to the freezing temperatures. "I know it wasn't very good."

"You should not put yourself down," Laufey said, and Loki frowned. "Your ice magic has been kept hidden from you for almost your whole life, you have made excellent progress these past few months, especially as you have not been able to visit very often and you are still afraid of your power."

"I'm not!" Loki said defensively, he couldn't let his father think he still harboured fear and resentment for the frost giants, not after everything he and his family had done for him.

"You are lying." Despite the amiable tone Laufey said this in, Loki couldn't help his sharp intake of breath and drawing away from his father slightly. Nothing good had ever followed a statement such as this. Laufey sighed. "Loki, I did not mean t-"

"I know you didn't," Loki cut across. "But it seems this fear response is so ingrained in me that I cannot even feel safe when those who mean me no harm say things such as that. But... and I mean no disrespect... surely you are not okay with me lying to you. You could not let that slide." Loki internally cursed himself at his question, it was like he wanted his father to cut him with cruel words (Laufey would never hurt him physically, Loki knew that now, logically, even if his reflexes hadn't quite caught onto that fact), but he had to know what Laufey would do, he had to  know the consequences for lying so he could be prepared.

"Of course I could 'let that slide'," Laufey replied. "Loki, you are not a child, and it is not my place to punish you, nor do you need punishing. But still, you are my child, and I would not hurt you with fists or magic or words. I understand why you would not want to tell the truth, and though I am irritated that you did not, it does not suddenly mean I have stopped liking you, that I have stopped caring for you."

Loki shook and collapsed into his father's open arms.

"Why do I always feel so pathetic?" he asked, trying to hold back sobs.

"Because there have been many people in your life who have twisted your mind to believe that you are, when in fact they are the pathetic ones. We will get past this, Loki, my son."

"Sometimes I wonder," Loki muttered.

"You have a lifespan of 5000 years do you not?" Laufey said fondly.

"Something like that."

"Then there is plenty of time to heal then, is there not?"

"Not if I want Tony to see me as something other than a broken wreck!" Loki choked out.

"What happened to the plan of getting him an apple?"

"What if they no longer exist!?" Loki was well aware he was acting a little hysterically now. "What if he gets bored? I can't give him what he wants, I know I can't."

"We are talking about the same Midgardian who stood up to Odin, broke into Asgard, and fought in a war against Odin's forces for you? I have seen the two of you together. He loves you Loki, indeed, he is nearly a second father to your children. And what do you mean you can't give him what he wants, what does he want?"

If Loki's blue skin had allowed him to blush he would have been scarlet. "That- that doesn't matter right now. I spoke in haste, it was nothing."

"You realise that I have had two sons, and that I have had to explain the goings on of nature and answer their questions a long time ago now."

"Oh, father,  _no_." Loki begged, covering his eyes with his arms. "I cannot do this."

"Loki," Laufey said seriously. "He is not forcing you into anything is he? If so, then I take all my earlier assessments back and I will not rest until his head lays outside my palace."

"No, no! By the Norns, no!" Loki protested, trying to get the words out quickly in the hope that this would make the situation less embarrassing. "It's quite the opposite, he says it's totally fine if we go at my pace, if we never, well, sleep together at all. It's just... when he was younger he used to be what the mortals term a 'playboy'. Has the Allspeak translated the last term correctly?"

"I believe so."

"You know why I am scared, you know what Angrboda did to me. What if Tony gets bored waiting?"

"Well, it seems as if he has already had enough for several lifetimes, I think he can wait, forever, if needs be." Laufey smiled. Loki shook  his head in despair.

"I  _hate_ Angrboda," Loki said bitterly, kicking into the snow with his heels. "I wish- but  _no_ I cannot wish because then I wouldn't have the triplets. Argh. Three days ago Sleipnir asked me to teach him how to teleport! I can't! I just can't! Because after Angrboda had taught me that she... I cannot risk having a panic attack over it, I cannot risk him finding out what happened. He is just a child, he is not meant to  _know_ things like that yet!"

"Loki," Laufey placed a hand on his shoulder and Loki jumped slightly, but then leaned into the touch. "You should teach him. You should build new memories and associations. If he finds out, he finds out. He is what, half a millennia now, I am sure he has an idea of what happened already. You know he will be safer if you teach him. I know you worry about people trying to harm him, this way he will be able to escape."

"I suppose you're right," Loki sighed. "I will teach him, I want to teach him. I'm just scared of screwing everything up, scared of dredging up old memories. Say what you want but I am a coward."

"Loki that is  _not_ true," Laufey's voice was stern. "You have been through more than most, bodies take time to heal from injuries, but so do our brains, our souls. You have had such a terrible life, and I am so, so sorry that Odin took you as a child, but you are not a coward, and you will heal."

And with that Loki could bear it no longer and collapsed sobbing into his father's arms.

 

 

Several hours later found Loki at the entrance to the Malibu mansion. 

He had stayed and chatted with his father for a while, talking about lighter subjects, before going to meet the rest of his family. They had eaten Jotunheimian delicacies and played their equivalent of board games, and, overall, he had passed a very enjoyable evening.

He had come back from Jotunheim via the Bifrost because if Loki was honest, Bifrost travel was still a lot simpler and worked better than travel by the E-R bridge, which still came under the category of 'experimental technology'. In the observatory he'd met with Alfar, one of the bravest soldiers who had defected and fought for Jotunheim in last year's battle, and had now taken over from Heimdall and been given his powers. Heimdall had been sent into exile by Frigga due to the part he had played in covering up and helping in Odin's abuse of Loki. Loki felt bad that such a fuss was being made over him, despite the fact that Tony had muttered that Heimdall deserved a lot worse than exile, but he was glad that he no longer felt like Heimdall was watching and passing judgement over his every move.

Darcy had been waiting for him at the observatory, they had hugged tightly and Loki had congratulated his honourary sister (Loki was fairly sure that Frigga had adopted Darcy in all but name now) on the progress she had made in Asgard. Darcy had happily told him about the latest developments towards democracy in Asgard and Loki had caught her up to date with everything that had happened over the past few days.

Eventually he had decided that he should probably get back home or risk not being awake enough to drop the children at school the next morning.

"Hi Jarvis," he said, upon opening the front door.

"Good evening, Loki," Jarvis replied. "Your children are all in bed and are fast asleep. Sir told them all a story and made sure they were snuggled down. You should also note that he was very considerate and he did not start his current activity until eleven minutes ago."

"And this current activity is..."

"Sir and Captain Rogers have been screaming at each other in the workshop for the past eleven and a half minutes!"

"What!?"

"Sir told me to tell you that if they were still arguing when you got back that he is absolutely fine and for you to go hang out with the others. He was most concerned about you having a panic attack."

"To hell with that," Loki muttered, storming towards the workshop. He was either going to put a stop to this or he wasn't going to let his boyfriend deal with this alone. He. Would. Be. Fine.

"What?" Loki asked, almost running down the stairs. "In the nine realms? Is going on in here?"

There was dead silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya, I hope you all enjoyed that!
> 
> Next up: What happened while Loki was on Jotunheim, aka Steve and Tony argue about what kind of man Howard Stark was. They have very different opinions as to what he was capable of.
> 
> As the button is at the top of the page, half the time I forget to subscribe to fics I like. So, if you'd like to, please don't forget to subscribe.
> 
> Please comment, whatever they say they mean the world and give me 200 percent more motivation!


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